«As the industry leader, we have the responsibility to shape the industry with innovations that will deliver on future energy and communication needs of our communities»
Chief R&D and Innovation Officer Prysmian
The diversified portfolio of activities is a strength for the Prysmian, as the only global leader with a business model balanced among areas with differing profiles, where each segment plays a precise role in the overall strategy, considering stability, growth potential and the generation of opportunities.
Central to our mission is providing our customers with superior cable solutions based on state-of the art technology and consistent excellence in execution, drawing on the ability to integrate ever more closely the various components - engineering, installation, network monitoring and after-sales services - to provide value-added services that ensure recurring revenue streams and build long-term partnerships with customers.
Alongside this, the Group is also able to identify and develop value-added market niches – such as solutions for the elevator industry, cables for multimedia applications, monitoring solutions developed by Prysmian Electronics – while releasing the synergies needed to be cost-effective and offer end-to-end solutions integrated with advanced digital equipment.
INNOVATION
We have continued to focus on new solutions to optimize costs via the Design to Cost (DTC) program, using better materials, efficient processes and innovative designs. This program reached a new record during 2023 in terms of global results, and thanks to the launch of new products on the market (NPI).
The projects we are working on today at our 26 Research and Development (R&D) centres around the world will help make energy and information safer, cheaper and cleaner, not only for our direct customers, but also for people and communities. Furthermore, our commitment to sustainability means we are working towards a better world for all.
For us, investing time and resources in R&D is a top priority.
Hence, our partnerships with 50 universities the world over: we aim at developing cutting-edge solutions able to create value for our customers.
Our engineers are passionate about what they do, whether it is developing a more sustainable material, adding more transmission capacity to a cable, or improving a production process in one of our 108 plants.
The R&D team has a patent portfolio of more than 5,600 key innovations, which not only offer a technological advantage, but also have a lower environmental impact than the solutions they replaced.
Prysmian's spending on Research, Development and Innovation was approximately Euro 128 million in 2023, confirming its steadfast commitment to and focus on sustainable long-term growth. The company’s investments include developing new products and solutions using fibre-sensing electronics, sensors, artificial intelligence and robotics.
The merger between Prysmian and General Cable, in 2018, has created a R&D powerhouse. We are investing in digital tools that enable efficient collaboration across our worldwide R&D community giving it ready electronic access to critical know- how, be it on our materials, designs or through technical experts.
Our goal is to be the most efficient we can in ‘connecting the dots’ to serve our customers and protect the environment.
In 2023, Prysmian increased investment in support of its ambition to be an enabler of the energy transition, responding to accelerating demand for digitalization and electrification solutions.
The strategy, aligned with the five-year plan unveiled on Capital Markets Day in October 2023, specifically calls for a selective acceleration of investment to meet growing demand, mainly in the Projects area. Over the 2023 - 2027 period, investment will grow 1.7 times over the previous five years to Euro 2.7 billion.
In August 2021, Prysmian took delivery of its new the 170-meter Leonardo da Vinci cable-laying vessel. The ship can lay submarine cables at depths of over 3,000 meters, also thanks to next-generation submarine cables armoured with lighter materials. Its two carousels of 7,000 and 10,000 tonnes ensure the highest capacity in the market, thereby improving project efficiency. These and other advanced features mean that the Leonardo da Vinci will allow more efficient and sustainable project execution, for the development of smarter and greener power grids worldwide to support the energy transition.
P-Laser 600 kV HVDC cable system is the most powerful cable solution for power transmission grids, allowing for a cost reduction of up to 30% per transmitted MW. The cable insulation is a Prysmian Group’s patented High HPTE (High Performance Thermoplastic Elastomer), which makes the cable recyclable.
66 kV cable systems for offshore wind farms are capable of delivering up to 15% cost reduction by raising the inter-array voltage level to 66 kV from previous 33 kV. This allows for the interconnection of the increasingly larger turbines now being deployed in the industry, in order to improve power transmission efficiency.
Hybrid cables are able to bring both power and ultra-broadband voice/data connection into homes, either side by side in a flat pack or together in a single tube, combining electrical and fibre optics cables. They are custom designed to meet a customer’s specific requirement.
Bend-resistant BendBrightXS optical fibres drastically reduce the size of cable diameters, shrinking the size and cutting the weight of cables in ducts and overhead. They make installation faster and more cost-effective. They minimize losses linked to macro and micro bending and increase a network’s lifespan.
The Flextube fibre optic cable range has been enlarged to reach a capacity of up to 2,112 fibres – the highest fibre-count cable to date. Installing such a high fibre count in a single job delivers significant cost and efficiency advantages.
Prysmian Electronics suite of electronics-based products have revolutionized the world of condition assessment and asset monitoring of power grids, electrical systems and equipment. These include PRY-CAM PORTABLE and PRY-CAM SYSTEM and allow performing online measurement and data gathering of key parameters without service interruption, with a database that hosts more than six million measurements on a dedicated cloud platform.
Alesea is a digitalised cable inventory management solution that uses IoT for real-time access to information. Attached to a drum and connected to the cloud, users can stay a step ahead of stock management and avoid unplanned shortages on their worksite.
PG Connect is a digital tool that combines a state-of-the-art head-mounted camera system and a cloud-based extended collaboration software, connecting on-field operators to internal and external experts to carry out both problem-shooting and routine maintenance.
Kablee is a digital platform that helps Prysmian Group enter geographical areas where it is not present. It provides services that make Prysmian Group’s offerings more sustainable, like connectivity for rural areas, and reselling of unused and also scrapped cables.
