Campaigning against
dangerous cables

Campaigning against dangerous cables

20% substandard cables in the UK

4,000 fires in buildings are down to faulty electrics

Prysmian Group is calling for legislation to oust substandard cables, after it has been campaigning for many years to make the manufacturing and importing  of substandard electrical cable into the UK illegal.

Industry estimates that 20% of all the cable in the UK is substandard, non-approved or counterfeit and that some 4,000 fires in buildings each year are down to faulty electrics. As a responsible manufacturer, Prysmian ensures that all of its products conform to the most rigorous quality standards. The company is appalled that dangerous cables are still allowed into the UK market.

Prysmian UK supports the British Approvals Service for Cables (BASEC) and actively promotes the Approved Cables Initiative (ACI), to try stopping dangerous cable getting into UK homes. The new European Construction Product Regulation (CPR), which came into effect on July 1st 2017, is a step in the right direction, but even this regulation does not apply to all types of cable.

ENHANCING CAPABILITIES  IN THE OFFSHORE WIND INDUSTRY

UK is strengthening its leadership in offshore wind energy, as the share of electricity generated from offshore wind farms here is higher than any other country in the world and it is expected to grow further. That’s why Prysmian plans to strengthen its operations in this industry are tightly tied with the Country.

The long-term growth perspectives in this industry have led Prysmian Group to further strengthen its commitment to this strategic market with an on-going investment in 2016-2017 of more than €60 million towards its production facilities and installation capabilities.

In April this year, the Group announced the capability of its production facility in Wrexham to manufacture both 33 kV and 66 kV submarine cable cores used for the inter-array cable connections in offshore wind farms, confirming investment plans to enable further growth in the business, to sustain and create local jobs and provide UK manufactured cables for the next generation of UK and European offshore wind farms.

In that industry, between 2012-2016, the Group invested around €200 M to create a world-class fleet of vessels, Cable Enterprise, Giulio Verne and Ulisse, able to lay cables at all water depths, while another €40 M had been allocated for retooling its production sites in Pikkala, Finland, Drammen, Norway, and Arco Felice, Italy, to handle the production of cables with voltages  of up to 600 kV.