REE to Start Ibiza – Mallorca Subsea Link

The Director General of Transport Red Eléctrica de Spain, Carlos Collantes, President of the Balearic Government, Jose Ramon Bauza, and President of the Consell Insular de Ibiza, Vicent Serra, have presented a draft of the submarine electrical connection between Ibiza and Mallorca.

Red Eléctrica will soon start laying the submarine cable for electrical interconnection between Mallorca and Ibiza. Nexans-own cable ship, the C/S Nexans Skagerrak, has received a major refit to carry and install the new 100 MW power connection between Ibiza and Mallorca. At 118 km it is the world’s longest 3-phase XLPE submarine cable, weighing almost 7,000 tonnes.

REE, Red Eléctrica de España, which operates the Spanish power system and owns the power grid, ordered the 90 million Euro cable link between Ibiza and Mallorca for the latest phase in a project to link the Balearic Islands to the mainland grid on the Iberian Peninsular. Red Eléctrica invested in this project, called Romulus 2, a total of 225 million euros.

The underwater electrical interconnection between Mallorca and Ibiza is very important for the Balearic Islands, as it will ensure the stability and quality of supply of the Balearic Islands and solve the problem of energy isolation of the islands, joining the two existing electrical systems (Mallorca-Menorca and Ibiza-Formentera) and reinforcing the process begun electrical interconnection between Mallorca and the Peninsula.

The interconnection is made by a submarine double bond of 132 kilovolts (kV) alternating current. With a length of 126 km, it will consist of two core cables with integrated fiber optics. According to its characteristics, this is a pioneering project and a technological challenge at the highest level. Thus, the submarine portion of the link of 118 km, will be the world’s longest alternating current and deepest in its category, as it follows a seabed up to 800 meters.