Dutch seismic and subsea specialist owner Fugro has been awarded a contract by Terna, owner of the Italian national transmission grid for high and extra-high voltage power, to perform a large multidisciplinary survey for part of the Tyrrhenian Link.
Tyrrhenian Link is a nationally strategic project to install two undersea HVDC electrical power cables connecting the Italian peninsula with the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. The interconnection is part of a 10-year plan to provide an increasingly secure and resilient electricity grid.
Fugro has won the contract to survey the East Link section of the project, which will connect Campania on the mainland to Sicily via the installation of two 480 km submarine cables and two submarine electrodes.
The survey begins this month and will be followed by a detailed marine geophysical survey utilising Fugro ROVs and a team of specialists.
Rodolfo D’Addario, country manager for Fugro in Italy, said: “The Tyrrhenian Link interconnection is strategically important infrastructure for Italy’s energy transition and the results from our surveys will help Terna design the most cost-efficient and feasible route. The ‘invisible’ undersea cables will increase transmission capacity and allow the best use of energy flows from renewable sources for an increasingly decarbonised system.”
