Prysmian has won an order from Amprion Offshore to supply and install the cable systems for the DolWin4 and BorWin4 offshore grid connection systems.
The contract, worth a total of more than €800m, including options, comprises approximately 1000 km of high voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine and onshore cables.
Amprion started the award process for the cable contracts in spring 2021.
With the decision to award Prysmian Powerlink, the German transmission system operator has now completed this process on time.
“Prysmian has shown in the past that they have the necessary know-how to install cables both offshore and onshore”, said Peter Barth, Managing Director of Amprion Offshore.
“This was important to us when awarding the cable contracts for our first offshore projects.
“Prysmian had also impressed with its flexibility, great commitment and competitive conditions in the award process.
“The promise to be able to install the cables for BorWin4 as early as 2028 – one year earlier as planned – as part of the German government’s accelerated scenarios also played an important role.
“In the current times, the awarding of our contracts is an important sign that progress is being made with the energy transition.
“That should be encouraging,” Barth added.
Amprion Offshore said a deciding factor in awarding Prysmian was because the company owns a special vessel for laying submarine cables, eliminating the risk of essential logistics not being available.
In addition, “significant synergy effects” can be leveraged because Prysmian is also installing cables for the A-Nord DC link.
DolWin4 and BorWin4 will be bundled with A-Nord over a distance of around 100 km.
The offshore grid connection systems DolWin4 and BorWin4, which run largely in parallel, are among the most important energy transition projects in Germany.
Amprion is using extra-HVDC transmission technology for the lines, which can be used to transport large amounts of energy over long distances with low losses.
DolWin4 and BorWin4 are scheduled to go into operation in 2028 and 2029.
From the North Sea wind farms, the cables will initially run 60 km and 125 km at sea and cross below the island of Norderney and reach the coast in the Hilgenriedersiel.
From there, they run for around 155 km as underground cables toward the Hanekenfähr substation in Lingen (Ems), where Amprion will connect them to its transmission network.
There, the Emsland nuclear power plant will be taken off the grid at the end of 2022 and the generation capacity will be replaced by 1.8GW offshore wind energy via DolWin4 and BorWin4.