VBMS and consortium partner Prysmian Powerlink
have been awarded a contract by Jersey Electricity for the supply and installation
of an interconnector between Jersey, the largest Channel Island, and France.
The 28-kilometre 90kV HVAC cable, part of Channel Island Electricity Grid
(CIEG), will connect both grids in order to improve the electricity supply
to the island of Jersey.
The cable, manufactured at Prysmian Arco Felice, Naples, will be installed
by VBMS in mid-2016. The scope of work also includes 2 complex landfalls.
For the first landfall at Surville, France, VBMS will perform a 300-metre
long HDD under the dunes followed by the installation of the cable through
a rocky gulley, close to where the existing in service Normandie 2 cable
is located. The second landfall will be carried out at Archirondel, Jersey,
by means of float-out and direct pull-in into the onshore substation. Due
to a tidal range of 10 metres at spring tide, VBMS will deploy its cable-laying
vessel Stemat Spirit, which is eminently suited for such challenging shallow
water operations.
VBMS CEO Arno van Poppel says, “After the repair we carried out between
Guernsey and Jersey earlier this year, under our existing framework agreement
with CIEG, we are very pleased to have signed another contract. We are
looking forward to adding the next successful project to our track record
for Jersey Electricity.”
The project involves the turn-key
supply and installation of a High Voltage Alternate Current (HVAC) cable
connection from France (Surville) to Jersey (Archirondel) comprising of
28 km of 90 kV 3-core cable in a single length as well as related network
components and specialist jointing works.
Prysmian will provide design,
supply and commissioning of the submarine and land cable connections as
part of a larger contract worth almost € 28 million, awarded to the consortium.
The submarine cable will replace
the existing obsolete Normandie 1 interconnector and its 100 MW capacity
will be shared by both Jersey and Guernsey islands under the CIEG (Channel
Islands Electricity Grid) partnership agreement, which is the vehicle through
which the local utilities procure power from EDF in France.
The submarine cables for the
Normandie 1 link will be produced in the Arco Felice plant (Italy), the
Group's centre of technological and manufacturing excellence. Project completion
is scheduled in October 2016.
The link will complement the
existing interconnectors to provide the Channel Islands with a significant
increase in their power import capability from France mainland. The award
follows the successful completion of the Normandie 3 link, also provided
by Prysmian, in 2014, as part of a significant 10 year investment program
by Jersey Electricity in their transmission network infrastructure.
Prysmian Group is particularly
active in supporting the development of interconnections to promote the
creation of a single European energy market with its state-of-the art technologies.
The Group also boasts an unrivalled track record of both on-going and completed
projects for the connection of islands to mainland grids, like the Negros
to Panay project in the Philippines, the Cyclades project in Greece, the
Capri-Torre Annunziata project in Italy, the Ibiza-Mallorca and the Mallorca-Spanish
mainland project in the Balearic islands, the Phu Quoc project in Vietnam
and the Hudson Transmission Project interconnecting Manhattan to New Jersey
in the USA. Prysmian has also just been awarded the milestone project NSN
Link that will interconnect Norway and UK along a 740 km route.
