Provence Grand Large

The Provence Grand Large (PGL) floating offshore wind farm (FOW) when completed at the end of 2023 will provide 24 MW of clean, safe and reliable energy to more than 40,000 households in France. It will be located about 17 kilometers from the coastal town of Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône (near Marseille) in a water depth of about 100 meters. The client is PEOPGL: Parc Eolien Offshore de Provence Grand Large. The three 8.4 MW Siemens Gamesa turbines will be installed on floating foundations built by SBM and IPFEN. The floating structures are tethered to the sea bottom by wires.

Prysmian Group will connect the turbines to the public electricity transmission grid operated by RTE via a 19-kilometre submarine cable and a 9-kilometre underground cable.

Provence Grand Large is a small-scale pilot project intended to demonstrate that offshore floating windfarms can become economically viable and is the first “pre commercial” floating offshore wind farm in France.

It is Prysmian Group’s first turnkey project for design, manufacturing, installation and commissioning of a dynamic cables system for a floating offshore wind farm in what could become a new business line for Prysmian Group, further adding to its strong track record in offshore wind. FOW are seen as an important growth area in Europe. Prior to PGL, Prysmian had supplied dynamic cables to FOW. Now it is doing a full EPCI contract, which means that it can be a sort of “one stop shop” for future FOW projects.

This article gives market background

“Floating turbines are the future of offshore wind generation. This technology opens new markets, allowing countries which were penalized for their not so favorable seabed to consider offshore generation as an additional option to accelerate the energy transition”

Alessandro Pistonesi

Project Manager at Prysmian Group

It is Prysmian Group’s first turnkey project for design, manufacturing, installation and commissioning of a dynamic cables system for a floating offshore wind farm in what could become a new business line for Prysmian Group, further adding to its strong track record in offshore wind. FOW are seen as an important growth area in Europe. Prior to PGL, Prysmian had supplied dynamic cables to FOW. Now it is doing a full EPCI contract, which means that it can be a sort of “one stop shop” for future FOW projects.

This article gives market background

The contract was awarded in April 2019. A pre-service contract was signed in October 2019, and included offshore investigations, detail design, and Flex Fatigue Testing for dynamic cable.

The contract was signed on December 18, 2020

Read the press release

Diagram of project illustration of offshore floating wind turbine, tethering cables, and flotation devices:

Innovation

Prysmian has developed several innovations for this project. The first is the dynamic inter array cable that can move under floating motion of the platform without breaking. The dynamic cable lays in a lazy wave configuration with the dynamic cable itself in S-shape where buoyancy modules sustain the dynamic cable to absorb floaters fluctuations to guarantee the cable lifetime (see diagram and illustration).

A second innovation for Prysmian is the ability to “pre terminate” or to install in the factories the accessories that is needed to fit the cable onto the platform. This gives Prysmian the advantage of reducing the offshore installation time. This is an advantage for Prysmian because it means less days to be spent for offshore activities on the vessel. And also, an advantage for the Client, because it means fewer potential stand-by days in case of bad weather.

Cables

4,2 km dynamic EPR cable, 150 mm2 Cu (Copper braid + PE)
20 km Static EPR cable, 150 mm2 Cu (Copper tapes)
0,2 km flying leads, single core 150 mm2 Cu (Copper braid + PE)

Current state of project

Type tests began week of July 4, 2022 and will end in March 2023. Mass production has started and will end in November.

Onshore installation will commence in January 2023. Offshore cabling will begin in September 2023. Project is scheduled to be completed by end 2023.

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