(Telestock) – Prysmiana world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems sector, has successfully completed the sea trial tests for the installation in ultra-deep waters of a 500 kV MI1 HVDC cable at a depth of 2,150 m. For the sector this is aRecord installation: for the first time an HVDC cable is laid at such a depth, setting new market standards.
This non-metallic armoured cable has been designed with a composite material of synthetic fibres (HMSF – High Modulus Synthetic Fibres), defining a new generation of cable technologies. The use of an innovative armour that can be up to 50% lighter than steel in water, together with the state-of-the-art cable-laying vessel Leonardo da Vinci, will allow the cable for Terna’s Tyrrhenian Link project to be installed and maintained at a sea depth of over 2,000 metres, the deepest ever reached with a power cable.
The success of the sea trials, explains a note, is the result of a series of laboratory tests and confirms once again the solidity of Prysmian’s innovations. The same “light” technology had already been used in 2019 for the Evia-Andros-Tinos interconnector at a depth of 550 m and in 2020 for the Crete-Peloponnese submarine interconnector project at a depth of 1,000 m.
The cable will be used as part of the Tyrrhenian Link project, a €1.7 billion contract awarded by Terna SpA in 2021. Prysmian is involved in the project by designing, supplying and installing over 1,500 km of submarine cables to support energy exchanges between Sardinia, Sicily and Campania, strengthening the Mediterranean energy hub.