Prysmian secures a new 118.7 million euro contract in Spain with REE (Red Electrica de España)

A 240km + submarine link connecting the electricity grids of the Iberian peninsula and the Balearic Islands to be built for the Spanish electricity company.

Prysmian Cables & Systems, a world leader in the energy and telecommunications cables and systems industry, has been awarded a contract for the design, supply and construction of a high voltage DC submarine link between the electricity grids of the Iberian peninsula and the island of Majorca (Balearic archipelago) on behalf of Red Electrica de España (REE).

The entire project, named COMETA (COnección MEditerránea Transporte Alta tensión) has been assigned to a consortium between Prysmian and Nexans. The value of the Prysmian portion of the project is worth 118.7 million euro. Working with Nexans, Prysmian will provide a turnkey system including the engineering, production and laying of two 250 kV DC cable terminals, comprising 240km of submarine cable and 7 km of land cable, with a total transmission capacity of 400 MW.

Prysmian will produce and lay one of the two paper insulated high voltage cables and the medium voltage return cable which, together with the cables Nexans is to produce and lay, will form the link between the Sagunto (mainland) and Santa Ponza (island of Majorca) sub-stations.

The COMETA project is of strategic importance for the development of Spain's national energy transmission network, and will link the biggest island in the Balearic archipelago (Majorca) with the mainland, providing access to generating capacities available on the peninsula. This will help to address growing energy requirements on the island.

Prysmian will install the high voltage submarine cable, the medium voltage return cable and the optical fibre data transmission cable with its own cable-laying ship, Giulio Verne. Given the length of the cable link, the laying process will be split into two stages with the return cable and the optical cable bundles laid first followed by the high voltage cable. Both the submarine and land cables required for the link will be produced by the Italian Arco Felice plant (Naples). The project is scheduled for completion by spring 2011.

Prysmian
A leading player in the industry of high-technology cables and systems for energy and telecommunication, the Prysmian Group is a truly global company with sales exceeding 5 billion euro in 2006 and a strong position in higher-added value market segments. With its two business, Energy Cables & Systems (submarine and underground cables for power transmission and distribution, for industrial applications and for the distribution of electricity to residential and commercial buildings) and Telecom Cables & Systems (optical cables and fibres and copper cables for video, data and voice transmission), Prysmian boasts a global presence with subsidiaries in 35 countries, 54 plants in 21 countries, 7 Research & Development Centres in Europe, USA and South America, and over 12,000 employees. Specialising in the development of products and systems designed to meet clients' specific requirements, Prysmian's key strengths include: a focus on Research & Development, the capacity to innovative on products and production processes, and the use of advanced proprietary technologies. Prysmian is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange Blue Chip index.