The interconnection project, being developed on behalf of INELFE, is part of the European Commission’s Projects of Common Interest and comprises around 400km of submarine, and land power cables for an overall capacity of 1GW
Prysmian secures €800m contract for Biscay Gulf project. (Credit: Dongsh on Unsplash)
Italy-based cable company Prysmian Group has secured an EPCI contract worth more than €800m for a new power interconnection between Gatika in Spain and Cubnezais in France.
The interconnection project, dubbed Biscay Gulf, is being developed on behalf of INELFE, which is a 50:50 joint venture (JV) between the Spanish grid operator Red Electrica and the French grid operator Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE).
The project is part of the European Commission’s Projects of Common Interest, based on its potential to enhance power supply, and further integrate renewable energy into the power grids.
Prysmian has been awarded an EPCI contract for Cable Link 2 of the project, which comprises around 400km of the submarine and land power cables for an overall capacity of 1GW.
As part of the contract, Prysmian will design, install, test and commission two HVDC 400kV single-core cables with XLPE insulation and fibre optic cable, used for telecom and monitoring.
The HVDC cables will connect the Cubnezais substation in France, to the Gatika substation in Spain, covering both submarine and land sections.
Prysmian is also responsible for the construction of four landfall sites for both the Links comprising the overall project.
The company will manufacture submarine cables at Prysmian’s facilities in Pikkala, Finland, and Arco Felice in Italy, while land cables will be produced at Gron and Montereau sites in France.
It will produce the fibre optics cables in the Nordenham facility in Germany and, Santander in Spain.
Prysmian is expected to complete the commissioning of the project by 2028.
The Italian company will carry out marine installation operations using its new cable-laying vessel, which is currently under construction and will be operational by the first quarter of 2025.
Prysmian Group projects EVP Hakan Ozmen said: “We are proud to be part of this challenging project, which will be the first essential submarine interconnection between France and Spain, contributing to increase up to 5GW overall the exchanged energy capacity between the two countries.
“This award confirms the trust and long-standing relationship between our clients — Red Eléctrica and Réseau de Transport d’Électricité — and Prysmian Group, as this is just the latest of several projects developed together in Spain and France to enhance the national power grid’s reliability and to support both countries in meeting their energy transition goals.”