Prysmian: New strategic interconnection Italy-France for Terna R. I. and RTE

Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, will lead a consortium of 7 companies for the realisation of the new High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) interconnection between Italy and France. The total value of this project, awarded by Terna Rete Italia S.p.A. and RTE, the transmission system operators in Italy and France is worth more than € 500 M. The share of Prysmian that, in its capacity as the consortium leader, will coordinate the design, supply, installation – including civil works – and commissioning of the interconnection is about € 200 M.

“We are proud to make our technologies and our experience available to the realisation of a project with such a high strategic value” said Valerio Battista, Prysmian Group CEO. “The development of power transmission interconnections is of paramount importance in Europe and Prysmian is a key player. As a matter of fact, we are in the final stages of the HVDC interconnection between France and Spain that will start operations by the first half of 2015”, he added.

The underground HVDC cable project, known also as the “Piemonte-Savoia” interconnection, will play a strategic role in increasing the security of power supply and enabling energy exchange between Italy and France up to 1200 MW, as a new and important step towards the creation of a single European energy market.

The project comprises of a ± 320 kV extruded HVDC underground cable turnkey system that includes the engineering, production and installation of two 600 MW bipolar circuits along a 190 km land route between the substations of Piossasco, near Turin (Italy) and Grand’Ile in Savoy (France) with a total of approximately 95 km in each country. Prysmian Group and Silec Cable will provide the HVDC underground cables insulated with extruded material technology; Roda SpA and CEBAT srl will provide civil works and installation on the Italian side and Gauthey, Serpollet and Sobeca will provide civil works and installation on the French side.

Commissioning is scheduled for 2019. The overall length of the link is the longest of its type and sets a world record for HVDC underground interconnections using extruded cable technology.

This project re-affirms the Group’s worldwide leadership in the strategic high value-added sector of HVDC grid connection projects. The Group has recently announced also the successful commissioning and hand over of the first and the second HVDC offshore grid connections (BorWin2 and HelWin1). A further two DC offshore grid connection projects, SylWin1 and HelWin2, and the DC land section of Skagerrak 4 are nearing completion. Prysmian is currently implementing also the HVDC cable systems for the DolWin3 and BorWin3 projects.