Prysmian has awarded Balfour Beatty a contract to install high voltage direct current (HVDC) land cables along a 68 kilometer stretch. The stretch of the land cables will be from Yorkshire, England to Peterhead, Scotland. An additional 1 kilometer of HVDC land cable will also be installed in the Scotland location.
The EGL2 Project contract
Prysmian was awarded the Eastern Green Link 2 (EGL2) Project contract earlier this year. In the €1.9 billion contract, Prysmian was to design, manufacture, install, test, and commission the Scotland-England 525 kV HVDC cable system with XLPE insulation technology for the project.
Also read: Eastern Green Link: UK’s Longest Subsea HVDC cable project
The client, a Joint Venture (JV) between SSEN Transmission and National Grid Electricity Transmission plc – UK electricity transmission network owners – also included 436 kilometers of HVDC submarine cables to the cable system necessitated in the €1.9 billion Prysmian contract by EGL2 Limited.
Also read: Construction of 2GW Scotland-England HVDC subsea cable approved
Balfour Beatty’s contract scope
Prysmian was also tasked with the replacement and upgrading of approximately 25 kilometers of new overhead lines aimed at increasing capacity to connect to the larger EGL2 project. Balfour Beatty will undertake the development of approximately 15% of this.
To reduce the visual impact of this development, the cables will be installed underground. This will also ensure that the landscaping through the course of the project’s route remains unaffected. The cables will then connect to new converter stations at either ends. The converters will be able to make the clean, renewable offshore energy available to consumers across Great Britain.
Main construction work will start in the first quarter of 2025, and be completed by 2029. At the project’s peak, as per official estimates, around 140 graduate and apprenticeship slots will be available at Balfour Beatty.
The Managing Director of Balfour Beatty’s Power Transmission and Distribution sector, Tony Wilson, expressed his optimism for the recently awarded contract and the project at large. “With a proven track record of working on complex cabling projects, this contract further demonstrates our leading role in delivering the vital infrastructure needed to reinforce the energy sector.”, he stated. “Our experience and deep domain knowledge positions us perfectly to complete these latest works for the project which will power around two million homes and businesses, supporting the UK’s transition to clean energy.”, he added.
