Prysmian secures 60M€ contract for a new submarine power cable project

Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, has been awarded a contract by Iberdrola Renovables Offshore Deutschland GmbH - German subsidiary dedicated to offshore wind activities of the world-leading wind farm developer and operator Iberdrola - worth a total of around Euro 60 million to supply and install wind turbine inter array cables for the Wikinger offshore wind farm, located within the West of Adlergrund cluster in the German Baltic Sea.

In May 2014 Prysmian Group already announced award of a contract with 50Hertz Offshore GmbH to design, produce and install multiple 220 kV HVAC (High Voltage Alternate Current) 3-core extruded submarine cable systems between planned offshore wind parks within the West of Adlergrund cluster.

Under the Wikinger contract, Prysmian is responsible for the design, manufacture, installation, burial, termination and testing of total 81 km of 33 kV submarine cables in different cross-sections to connect the 70 wind turbines and an offshore substation that form the 350 MW wind farm. Cables will be produced in Prysmian’s facility in Drammen, Norway, one of the Group’s excellence centres for submarine cables. Installation works are scheduled to be complete by the end of 2016.

This new project is a full inter-array “turnkey” supply and installation contract, which re-affirms the Group's full expertise in offshore wind farm connections and an extended ability to execute complex installation solutions in this field in order to support the demands of this growing industry.

Over the years Prysmian has moved ahead with major investments in new and upgraded assets, broadening the range of offered products, services and capabilities in order to be fully equipped to face the many challenges coming from the offshore wind power market in a timely manner.

The Group's investment programmes have been aimed at expanding production capabilities, at multiplying the use of innovative technologies and at strengthening execution capabilities with conversion of a dumb barge to self-propelled DP2 vessel able to operate in very shallow waters.

Prysmian, now, can rely on three production facilities dedicated to submarine cables, situated in Arco Felice (near Naples, Italy), Pikkala (Finland) and Drammen (Oslo, Norway); two installation vessels, Giulio Verne and Cable Enterprise (close to be leaving docks after extensive upgrade works), as well as well-proven in-house cable protection equipment, and specialised operations teams.

With such an extended footprint, the Group is able to serve the market as trusted and dedicated partner for the interconnection of offshore wind parks to mainland grids with a full offer of products ranging from medium voltage inter-array cables, to HVAC and HVDC export cables and turn-key EPC installation services.

Within its portfolio, Prysmian holds already an ever-increasing track record of offshore wind power connections, with projects either completed or on-going in Denmark, Holland and the UK as well as the HVDC connections to shore in Germany for the BorWin2, BorWin3, HelWin1, HelWin2, DolWin3 and SylWin1 mega wind farm hubs, forming part of the most important programme for the development of renewable energy in Europe.