Prysmian Group has been awarded a new contract worth in excess of 50 million euro by TenneT, operator of transmission systems in Germany and the Netherlands, for the connection of the Offshore Wind Park (OWP) Deutsche Bucht, located in the North Sea to the mainland grid.

The project involves the design, supply and installation of turn-key High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) submarine power cable systems consisting of two 3-core 155 kV extruded cables with integrated fibre optic cable elements along a 31 km submarine route to enable the grid connection of the OWP Deutsche Bucht via converter platforms planned within the BorWin cluster.

This includes a connection to be made from the OWP platform to the offshore HVDC converter platform, referred to as "BorWin beta".

The Group had already secured the contract for the onward connection of the "BorWin beta" platform to the German mainland grid in 2010 as part of the BorWin2 project.

BorWin2 marked a technology milestone in the industry as it was the first ever commercial +/- 300 kV DC cable project using extruded technology and the first 800 MW rated connection to offshore wind parks employing VSC technology (Voltage Sourced Converter).

Under this new contract, Prysmian will in addition also supply and install associated platform cables, and notably, also the required shunt reactors on the OWP Deutsche Bucht platform, as part of the full turn-key scope of the project addressed by the Group's extended capability.

The Deutsche Bucht project execution will be coordinated from the Prysmian Group new offices in Hamburg, using production from the Group's centre of technological and manufacturing excellence in Arco Felice (Naples, Italy).

Marine cable laying operations will be performed using the Group's own installation vessels Giulio Verne and Cable Enterprise with handover of the supplied systems planned for late 2015.

"This new project, the twelfth secured by the Group that - since the earliest stages - has been investing in this growing sector, further highlights Prysmian's strategic role in supporting the realization of the important development plans in the field of renewable wind power in Germany and Northern Europe with unique technologies and expertise" states Marcello Del Brenna, CEO Prysmian Powerlink.

Strong growth perspectives in this sector are confirmed by the data recently released by EWEA (European Wind Energy Association), according to which 5 GW of generation capacity were installed in 2012 alone, 4.5 GW are currently under construction and 18.4 GW have already been consented and authorized for the coming years.

Prysmian Group has timely invested in technologies, additional production and project execution capacity to better serve the industry.