French offshore cable construction and installation firm Nexans has been awarded a frame contract for more than €650 million (around $738,16 million) with Terna, supplying an interconnector cabling solution for its Tyrrhenian Link in Italy.
Tyrrhenian Link has been described as a double underwater connection between Sicily, Sardinia, and the Italian peninsula.
As part of the contract, Nexans will manufacture and install 500km of a 500kV mass-impregnated (MI) cable and Fiber Optic (FO) cable at more than 2,000m water depth, the deepest depth ever for a subsea power cable in the Mediterranean.
The Tyrrhenian Link is a significant milestone in the much-needed development of the electricity grid in Europe. It creates a new electricity corridor between Sicily, Sardinia and Campania that will allow the first loop to be established between the two islands and the Italian mainland.
The project will help increase electricity exchange capacity and support the development of renewable energy flows. In addition, it will strengthen network stability and security as well as increase competitiveness for producers in the local electricity markets, Nexans said.
For the Nexans installation of the interconnector cable, Nexans’ will use the recently launched cable-laying vessel “Nexans Aurora”, which can install deep water cables in water depth of over 2,000m and supports a 10,000ton cable payload.