Prysmian to develop a new submarine power cable link for the Hornsea 3 offshore windfarm in the UK

Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, has been awarded a new contract by Ørsted Wind Power A/S to supply inter-array submarine cables for the Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm, located 160 km off the Yorkshire coast, UK. Once constructed, it will be able to supply well over 3 million homes with green, renewable electricity.

Under the contract - subject to Ørsted taking a Final Investment Decision on Hornsea 3 – Prysmian Group will be responsible for the design, manufacture, supply, termination and testing of the inter–array submarine cable system that will connect the wind turbines and the offshore converter station. The project involves approximately 280 km of 66 kV inter-array cables with XLPE insulation, which will cover approximately 50% of the overall wind farm’s requirements.

All the submarine cable cores will be produced at the Group’s centres of excellence located in Montereau and Gron, France, while the armouring and assembling processes will be performed at the plant in Nordenham, Germany. The cables are due to be delivered in 2026.

“This award reflects Ørsted’s trust in Prysmian’s capabilities to meet the increasing need of submarine cable systems to support the energy transition to smarter and greener power grids. We are very pleased and proud for having been chosen again to undertake such a challenging project supporting Ørsted to meet the UK Government’s ambition to deliver 50 GW of offshore wind power by 2030 as part of the British Energy Security Strategy. Thanks to our technological and state-of-the-art products and solutions, we will ensure a safe and reliable energy supply to the communities of the area,” stated Juliano De Mello, Sales Team Manager Offshore Wind, Prysmian Group.

Previously, in 2018, Ørsted had awarded Prysmian Group a contract to design, manufacture, supply and test 66 kV inter–array submarine cable system for the Hornsea 2 offshore wind farm, connecting 110 of the 165 wind turbines and the offshore substation platform.

Luke Bridgman, Senior Project Director for Hornsea 3, commented: “After working successfully with Prysmian on the Hornsea 2 project, we are delighted to work together again on Hornsea 3. The project represents another leap forward in terms of the size and scale of offshore wind farms, and collaborations with world-class manufacturers such as Prysmian are crucial to executing the project successfully. Prysmian shares our commitment to providing further sources of low-cost clean energy and we look forward to another great co-operation.”