Prysmian Group, the globally renowned company in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, has announced the successful completion of the world’s longest submarine electricity interconnector between the United Kingdom and Norway.
North Sea Link enables the sharing of renewable energy between the two countries for the first time, supporting both countries in the journey to net zero.
North Sea Link
In 2015, Norwegian system operator, Statnett and UK-based National Grid awarded Prysmian Group a 550M€ project, to complete Lots 2 and 3 of North Sea Link, equating to approximately 950 km of subsea HVDC cables (1400MW, ± 525kV), manufactured in Prysmian Group’s Arco Felice Factory, in Naples, France and installed in the North Sea, over a 720 km route.
Massimo Galletta, the Project Manager at Prysmian Group, said “We are delighted to have delivered such a remarkable project on time, respecting the highest health, safety and quality standards. The plan in 2015 was to complete the work in line for commissioning in 2021. While the timescale looked quite healthy, the initial years were committed to the design and manufacture of the system and considering how best to execute the work, once the cable was manufactured.”
Massimo Galletta adds, “When we performed our risk assessment on the execution phase, we looked at the risks toward the end of the installation phase and established that we could significantly de-risk the project, by performing some of the work in earlier years.”
Installation of the NSL interconnector
With the help of the Projects BU, Prysmian Group put together an accelerated schedule
With the help of the Projects BU, Prysmian Group put together an accelerated schedule, which enabled them to achieve the installation of the NSL interconnector, some 9 months ahead of the contract schedule. The team was also able to withstand impacts deriving from the COVID-19 pandemic, putting in place protocols primarily focused on personnel healthy, which prevented any significant impact.
As with throughout the entire project, this approach continued to put SHE at the forefront of Prysmian’s execution, which has proved ultimately successful, as they have completed the project with no significant SHE incidents, across the 5 years of operations, both offshore and onshore, including their manufacturing facilities.
Prysmian and Nexans partnership in project
In October 2020, Prysmian received the certificate marking the completion of the installation works. With the successful execution of the transition joints between Prysmian and Nexans cables in Q2 2021, done in collaboration with Nexans, the trial and commission phase started as planned in Q4 2021 and was successfully concluded.
At completion of commissioning operations and delivery of the as built documentation, Prysmian Group received the Completion Certificate on 14th February 2022, one month ahead of the contractual milestone.
Successful completion of project Before deadline
Massimo Galletta concludes, “Prysmian’s success on this project is thanks to the experience and contribution of the international team, who have worked tirelessly over the past 7 years, and the strong relationship and collaboration we have experienced with both National Grid and Statnett, to achieve this goal.”