NKT and Prysmian have been awarded major contracts of €1bn and €800m respectively by TenneT and TransnetBW for the 750km 524kV XLPE German SuedLink HVDC interconnector from north to south Germany.
Denmark’s NKT said its deal comprises supply and installation of a one of two high-voltage DC onshore cables with a route length of around 750km.
The order includes a specially engineered solution for the power cable to cross the Elbe river and a salt mine.
NKT expects to start production early 2022 at its plants in Cologne, Germany, and in Karlskrona, Sweden, with expected project completion in 2026.
Prysmian will deliver the other cable. The Italian company said the route, with a length of around 700km, will run from Wilster in Schleswig-Holstein, to the north-west of Hamburg, to the southern connection point at Bergrheinfeld, close to Schweinfurt in Bavaria.
Prysmian said project completion is planned in 2026.
NKT president and chief executive Alexander Kara said the order underlined its position as a major partner in Germany’s transition towards increased use of renewable energy and in connecting the national grids.
He added: “Our power cable systems will ensure that wind and hydro power can be transported all the way from the North Sea and Norway via the NordLink and SuedLink interconnectors to Southern Germany.”
Hakan Ozmen of Prysmain said: “With SuedLink, Prysmian extends its involvement in strategic underground interconnection projects creating increasingly efficient and sustainable power transmission grids. Alongside the trust placed in us with the German DC Corridors, we can point to our positive commitments on other long high-power land projects, such as the Piedmont-Savoy connection, the INELFE link, as well as the ElecLink and the ALEGrO projects.”
The SuedLink line starts in Northern Germany where it connects to power from offshore wind farms and to the Nordlink interconnector, which brings hydro power from Norway to Germany via a 525kV high-voltage DC offshore power cable system also provided by NKT.
SuedLink is one of three long-distance high-voltage DC power transmission lines in Germany to transport renewable energy from the northern parts of the country to the south, and it links the federal states of Schleswig-Holstein and Baden-Württemberg.
In total, the three transmission lines will cover a significant proportion of the country’s power supply and are key to realize the ‘Energiewende’, Germany’s long-term strategy for switching to renewable energies by 2050.