Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. (Sumitomo) has been awarded a contract from the Prysmian Group to supply 150 km of HVDC submarine cable for the NeuConnect Interconnector, a 1.4 GW power interconnection project between the U.K. and Germany.
A press release said that Sumitomo will supply a section of HVDC mass-impregnated cable to Prysmian PowerLink Services, Ltd., which secured the main contract with NeuConnect. The overall project—that will directly link the German and U.K. electricity grids for the first time— calls for some 725 km of land and subsea cables. They will enable up to 1.4 GW of electricity to move in either direction, enough to power up to 1.5 million homes over the life of the project.
The submarine cable, which forms part of the offshore cable route between the two countries, will be manufactured at Sumitomo’s Osaka Works in Japan. The order represents Sumitomo’s sixth European HVDC power link project after MON. ITA (Montenegro-Italy), NEMO (UK-Belgium), A-Nord HVDC project (Germany), Kontek (Germany-Denmark) and Greenlink (Ireland-GB).
“We are honored to be the supplier for this project, which will form part of critical infrastructures to achieve net-zero emissions,” said Sumitomo Managing Executive Officer Yasuyuki Shibata.
The NeuConnect Interconnector is a private project by international investors, including Meridiam, Allianz Capital Partners and Kansai Electric Power.