Italy-headquartered Prysmian Group has been awarded a contract by Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE) to provide power grid asset management services for Saint-Nazaire, Fécamp, and Calvados wind farms offshore France.
Under the contract, Prysmian Group will provide inspection, maintenance, and repair services for the submarine export cable links connecting the three offshore wind farms near the French coast of Normandy that will be linked to the mainland using Prysmian cables.
The contract will cover the three High-Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) 220 kV three-core submarine cables with XLPE insulation and single-wire armoring of the Fécamp (2×18 kilometres offshore), Calvados (2×16 kilometres offshore) and Saint-Nazaire (2×34 kilometres offshore) wind farms.
The agreement will last 15 years and enters into effect immediately at the already-completed link of Saint-Nazaire, which will then be extended to the other two links as soon as they are fully operational.
Also known as Parc éolien en mer du Banc de Guérande, the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm features GE Haliade 150-6 MW turbines that were transported and installed out of GE’s logistics hub at the Nantes Saint-Nazaire Port.
The 480 MW offshore wind farm is owned and developed by Eolien Maritime France (EMF), a consortium of EDF Renouvelables, Enbridge, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments).
The 500 MW Fécamp offshore wind farm will feature 71 Siemens Gamesa SWT-7.0-154 wind turbines, all of which will stand on gravity-based foundations.
The project is being jointly developed by EMF and wpd offshore and is expected to be fully commissioned next year when it will produce the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of 770,000 people, or 60 per cent of the inhabitants of Seine-Maritime.
The 448 MW Calvados offshore wind farm is also being developed by EMF and wpd.
The wind farm will feature 64 Siemens Gamesa 7 MW wind turbines located more than 10 kilometres from the Bessin coastline and cover a total surface area of approximately 45 square kilometres.
Once fully commissioned in 2024, Calvados will generate the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of 630,000 people, or over 90 per cent of the Calvados French department’s population.