Prysmian Group has announced the successful completion of the world’s longest submarine electricity interconnector between the UK 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.

In 2015, Norwegian system operator Statnett and UK-based National Grid awarded Prysmian Group a project to complete Lots 2 and 3 of North Sea Link, which involved around 950 km (590 miles) of subsea HVDC cables (1400MW, ± 525kV) manufactured in Prysmian’s Arco Felice Factory in Naples and installed in the North Sea over a 720-km (447-mile) route. The project is worth €550 million ($606.4 million).

“The plan in 2015 was to complete the work in line for commissioning in 2021,” said Massimo Galletta, Project Manager at Prysmian Group. “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.”

“When we performed our risk assessment on the execution phase”, continues Galletta, “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.”

With the help of the Projects BU, Prysmian Group put together an accelerated schedule which enabled the installation of the NSL interconnector some 9 months ahead of the contract schedule, the company said in a press release.

“As with throughout the entire project, this approach continued to put Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) at the forefront of Prysmian’s execution which has proved ultimately successful as we have completed the project with no significant SHE incidents across 5 years of operations, both offshore and onshore, including our manufacturing facilities,” said Galletta.

In October 2020, Prysmian received the certificate marking the completion of the installation works. With the execution of the transition joints between Prysmian and Nexans cables in Q2 2021 done in collaboration with Nexans, the trial and commission phase started and was as concluded as planned in Q4 2021.

At completion of commissioning operations and delivery of the as built documentation, Prysmian received the Completion Certificate on 14th February 2022, one month ahead of the contractual milestone.

“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” concludes Galletta.

Source: Prysmian Group