Offshore installation company Jan De Nul Group has secured a contract with Sumitomo Electric for the installation of two subsea HVDC cables and one fiber optic cable that will link the existing electricity grids in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The subsea cable route for the 500 MW Greenlink Interconnector is about 160 km long between County Wexford in Ireland and Pembrokeshire in Wales. Jan De Nul Group’s Cable Laying Vessel Connector will be mobilized for the Greenlink Project. The vessel is equipped with two cable carrousels with a carrying capacity of respectively 6,000 t and 4,000 t.
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 carry out the Horizontal Directional Drillings starting later this year 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 largely 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.
Harada Kazuhira, Executive Officer and General Manager of Power Project Division at Sumitomo Electric: “We are delighted to be working with our partner Jan De Nul to build the Greenlink between Ireland and UK. This interconnector will form a critical part of the infrastructure to achieve net-zero emissions.”
Wouter Vermeersch, Manager Offshore Cables at Jan De Nul Group: “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 2 years and we are now ready to fully engage in the actual realisation of it.”
Connecting the power markets in Ireland and Great Britain Greenlink is a subsea and underground electricity interconnector linking the power markets in Ireland and Great Britain and is due for commissioning in 2024.
Being awarded the status of Project of Common Interest by the European Union, the project has been described as one of Europe’s most important energy infrastructure projects, bringing electricity to approximately 380,000 homes.