Italy’s Prysmian has officially been awarded a contract worth around €850m ($927m) by Eastern Green Link 1, a joint venture between the UK transmission grid owners SP Transmission and National Grid Electricity Transmission, to provide the cable systems for a major UK network development project between Scotland and England.
The award follows the selection of Prysmian as the exclusive preferred bidder earlier this year and a subsequent commitment made to assure Prysmian’s continued capacity availability.
Eastern Green Link 1, with a power transmission capacity of 2 GW, is expected to be the first cable system in the UK to utilise 525 kV technology with extruded XLPE insulation. The link forms part of a series of planned system reinforcements required to boost the capability of the existing UK transmission network and facilitate the growth in flows of renewable generation in the North to demand centres to the South, supporting the target of enabling 50 GW offshore wind generation by 2030.
Under the contract, Prysmian will design, manufacture, install, test and commission the required high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable system, delivering nearly 400 km power cable needed for the 194 km route between the two countries. The majority 176 km portion of the route will be installed offshore in the North Sea.
Offshore installation campaign will utilise Prysmian’s cable lay vessel of the “Leonardo da Vinci” class, with commissioning of the project scheduled in 2028. The Milan-based cabling giant has also been selected as the exclusive preferred bidder for the Eastern Green Link 2 connection between Peterhead in Scotland and Drax in the North of England.
