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PRYSMIAN GROUP | DIRECTORS’ REPORT
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the design, engineering, supply, construction, installation and commissioning of HV underground cable
systems, requiring a total of 210 km of 132 kV cable and related network components for both projects that
will be executed by the Group's offices in Kuwait. Installation started in 2015 with completion scheduled in
2016.
On 26 March, the Group announced that it would be leading a consortium of 7 companies for the
construction of the new HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current)
electricity interconnection
between Italy and
France. The total value of this project, awarded by Terna Rete Italia S.p.A. and RTE, the transmission
system operators in Italy and France respectively, is more than Euro 500 million. The share of Prysmian,
which in its capacity as consortium leader will coordinate the design, supply, installation – including civil
works – and commissioning of the interconnection, is about Euro 200 million.
The HVDC underground power line, also known as the "Piedmont-Savoy" interconnection, will play a
strategic role in enhancing energy security and enabling energy exchange up to 1200 MW between Italy and
France, as a new and important step towards the creation of a single European electricity market.
The project, involving a turnkey ± 320 kV HVDC extruded
underground cable
system, will entail the
engineering, production and installation of two 600 MW bipolar circuits along a 190 km route between the
substations of Piossasco, near Turin (Italy), and Grand’Ile in Savoy (France), of which approximately 95 km
running through each country. Prysmian Group and Silec Cable will supply the HVDC extruded cables; Roda
SpA and CEBAT srl will be responsible for civil works and installation on the Italian side, while Gauthey,
Serpollet and Sobeca will be responsible for civil works and installation on the French side.
Commissioning of the system is scheduled for 2019. The line's overall length is a world record for HVDC
extruded underground interconnections.
On 1 April, the Group was awarded a new contract by 50Hertz Offshore GmbH - a subsidiary of 50Hertz
Transmission GmbH, a transmission grid operator in Germany - worth approximately Euro 230 million to
design, produce and install cables to connect the West of Adlergrund
offshore wind farm cluster
in the
Baltic Sea to mainland electricity grids in Germany.
This latest award is the result of 50Hertz exercising an option for additional grid connections contained in the
existing contract for the West of Adlergrund project, signed by Prysmian in May 2014 and originally worth
around Euro 480 million with options for other grid connections to be activated separately.
This
interconnection project
involves the design, supply and installation of multiple
HV submarine cable
systems, now including this additional connection, between offshore wind farms approximately 40 km north-
east of Rügen Island, and the Lubmin substation in north-east Germany, covering a distance of some 90 km
underwater and 3 km onshore.
The 220 kV HVAC 3-core extruded cables (with an integrated optical fibre system) will be produced at the
Group's centres of technological and manufacturing excellence in Pikkala (Finland) and Arco Felice (Naples,
Italy), which have recently been upgraded and equipped to manufacture and test large cross-section 3-core
cables of up to 400 kV AC. Production of the West of Adlergrund cable systems has already started and
marine installation operations are scheduled to begin in 2016 with the assistance of "Cable Enterprise", the
Group's DP2 cable-laying ship.