Longest submarine cable yet goes to sea

6 November 2014


Nexans' cable laying ship C/S Nexans Skagerrak has set out from Halden, Norway, loaded with the world's longest 3-core submarine power cable. The cable will be used create a new 100 MW power connection between Ibiza and Mallorca. At 119 km it is the world's longest 3-phase XLPE submarine cable, weighing almost 7000 tonnes, and to carry it the Skagerrak has undergone a major refit.
REE, Red Eléctrica de España, which operates the Spanish power system and owns the power grid, ordered the 90 million Euro cable link between Ibiza and Mallorca for the latest phase in a project to link the Balearic Islands to the mainland grid on the Iberian Peninsular. This will provide the islands with a more reliable, energy efficient and lower emission power supply.
The cable structure is said to include state-of-the-art XLPE insulation. It will set two world records for both the longest 3-core HV AC connection, and the deepest at 800 metres. The cable was spooled from Nexans' specialised cable plant in Halden, Norway. It is now heading for the Mediterranean where it will be installed ready for commissioning in 2015, according to the project schedule.
During a year of manufacturing, the HV laboratory at Halden conducted almost 100 tests of various cable lengths and end samples. The huge length of the cable made a number of the processes involved more demanding, as seemingly minor variations result in major fluctuations over a long continuous length. Dirk Steinbrink, a Nexans senior Executive VP "So far everything has run to schedule with the cable passing its Factory Acceptance Test, and we are delighted to be starting the delivery and installation phase."



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