Italy’s Prysmian reports that it has finalized three contracts collectively worth about €5 billion with Amprion, a leading European TSO, for two offshore grid connection systems—BalWin1 and BalWin2—and DC 34, an underground cable project.

A press release said that the package deal is the largest in terms of value and km of cable ever awarded to Prysmian. It calls for some 4,400 km of HVDC cable and DMR (Dedicated Metallic Return) cable, of which around 3,400 km are land cables and 1,000 km are submarine cables.

The contracts follow the selection of Prysmian as a preferred bidder last August. At that time, it was noted that each cable system would consist of two single-core ±525 kV HVDC copper cables with XLPE insulation for the submarine sections and P-Laser insulation for the land underground sections, plus a dedicated metallic return cable and a fiber optic cable. BalWin1 will use about 1,070 km of cables along a 358 km route while BalWin2 will use about 1,100 km of cables over a route of 376 km. DC34 will use two single-core ±525 kV HVDC copper cables with P-Laser insulation, including a dedicated metallic return cable. It will consist of up to 2,100 km of cables for the cross Germany route.

The three projects are part of Germany’s overall plan to install 70 GW of offshore wind energy by 2045 and will support the transmission of the energy generated in the North Sea to consumers in the Western and Southern regions of the country. BalWin1 and BalWin2 each will transmit up to 2 GW of offshore wind energy from areas 9 and 10 of the German North Sea to the grid connection points. DC34, part of the Rhein-Main-Link, will connect the substation in Lower Saxony to a second substation in the federal state of Hesse to transmit up to 2 GW of wind energy to the Rhine-Main metropolitan area.

“The three contracts with Amprion are an important milestone for Prysmian as they underline once again the trusting cooperation between the two companies,” said Hakan Ozmen, EVP Prysmian Transmission Division.

“We have secured the necessary cable resources for three important energy transition projects,” said Dr. Hendrik Neumann, CTO of Amprion. “For us, this is a major step towards project success.”