Prysmian Cables for French Grid Connection

Italian cables giant Prysmian has secured a contract from the French transmission system operator RTE for two subsea and land export power cables to connect the offshore wind farm between the islands of Yeu and Noirmoutier to the French grid.

The grid connection project will be able to export 500 MW of energy, covering a submarine cable route of around 27 kilometers and an underground cable route of around 30 kilometers.

Under the contract, worth over €150 million, Prysmian will provide the design, supply, installation, and commissioning of two HVAC 225 kV three-core extruded export submarine cables with single-wire armouring which will reach the landfall area at La Barre-de-Monts beach.

In addition, Prysmian will deliver two HVAC 225 kV extruded land cables circuits that will link the landfall area to the substation at Soullans.

Submarine cables will be produced at Prysmian’s factories in Pikkala (Finland) and Arco Felice (Italy), while land cables will be manufactured in Gron (France).

Installation operations will be performed by the vessel Cable Enterprise.

According to Prysmian, delivery and commissioning are scheduled for 2023, conditional upon the receiving of the notice to proceed expected by March 2020 as regard the preliminary studies, and by June 2020 for the overall project.

The offshore wind farm is being developed by the company Les Eoliennes en Mer d’Ile d’Yeu et Noirmoutier which was awarded around 500 MW capacity production by the French government.