The cable link will take a subsea route along the coast to connect the power production area located at Le Port in the West of the island to the capital city of Saint-Denis which requires much of the energy.
Nexans is manufacturing two 90kV subsea XLPE cables, each 17.3km in length, to provide a power link of around 100MW. Each cable will include three phases with copper conductor cross-sections of 400 mm2, resulting in a weight of 60kg per metre – a total of 2.000 tonnes of cable.
The company is also providing a turnkey service for EDF including design and manufacturing of the cable, and laying and protection. The cable will be delivered and installed at a water depth attaining 100 metres.
The La Reunion cables will be assembled in the specialized Nexans facility in Halden, Norway and will incorporate fibre optic monitoring and control elements supplied by the Rognan plant, North of Norway.
Yvon Raak, senior corporate executive vice president of Nexans, said: “The La Reunion project is particularly challenging, not only due to the terrain but also the local climate, and is a perfect illustration of our capability to implement innovative power connection solutions in even the most demanding global locations.
“We have a long standing working relationship with EDF and won this latest major contract following the successful completion of a number of similar projects”.
