Prysmian secures grid connection for offshore wind project in France

The offshore windfarm is being developed by Les Eoliennes en Mer I’Ile d’Yeu et Noirmoutier which was awarded around 500 MW of capacity by the French Government.

RTE, the French transmission system operator, will design, build, maintain and operate the 225 kV submarine and landside links to connect the offshore windfarm to the grid.

The connection will have a 27-km submarine and 30-km underground cable on land.

Prysmian will provide the design, supply, installation and commissioning of two HVAC 225-kV three-core extruded export submarine cables with single-wire armouring. They will reach the landfall area at La Barre-de-Monts.

Prysmian will also be responsible for supplying and jointing two HVAC 225-kV extruded land cables that will link the landfall area to the substation at Soullans.

The submarine cables will be produced at Prysmian’s facilities in Pikkala, Finland and Arco Felice, Italy. The land cables will be manufactured in Gron, France.

Installation operations will be undertaken by Cable Enterprise, one of the group’s cable-laying vessels. Delivery and commissioning are scheduled for 2023, conditional upon a notice to proceed, which is expected by March 2020 for preliminary work and June 2020 for the overall project.