Jan De Nul has signed a contract with Sumitomo Electric for the installation of cables that will link Irish and UK power grids enabling flows of low carbon electricity.
The Greenlink subsea electricity interconnector is due for commissioning in 2024 and has been awarded Project of Common Interest status by the EU.
The HVDC cable route for the 500MW Greenlink Interconnector is about 160 km long between County Wexford in Ireland and Pembrokeshire in Wales.
Jan De Nul is responsible for the end-to-end subsea cable laying and cable protection works.
At the shore sides, Jan De Nul will perform the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) operations starting later in 2022.
The offshore installation campaigns will be performed in 2023 and 2024.
Jan De Nul’s cable-laying vessel Connector will install the subsea cables which will predominantly be buried in the seabed.
Where the seabed does not allow cable burial, the cables will be protected by the installation of rock or concrete mattresses on top of the cables.
Sumitomo Electric’s power project division’s general manager, Harada Kazuhira, said: “This interconnector will form a critical part of the infrastructure to achieve net-zero emissions.”
Jan De Nul offshore cables manager Wouter Vermeersch added: “We are honoured to work alongside Sumitomo Electric to establish this important link for the electricity grids between Ireland and UK.
“Jan De Nul and Sumitomo Electric have been developing the installation solution in close collaboration over the last two years and we are now ready to fully engage in the actual realisation of it.”