Nexans on Monday announced that it had won an order from GCCIA (Gulf Countries Council Interconnection Authority) amounting to over US$171 million for the manufacture, transportation and installation of a dedicated extra-high-voltage link to interconnect the power grids of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. This project, worth US$343 million overall, is one of the largest ever undertaken in the world. Due to its size, it required the creation of a 50/50 consortium between Nexans and Prysmian Cavi e Sistemi of Italy.
For this project, Nexans will supply one extra-high-voltage cable circuit comprising a total of 120km of 400kV single core SCFF (Self Contained Fluid Filled) submarine cables, 24km of 400kV single core SCFF underground cables and 47 km of fibre optic cable (48 fibres) as well as connection accessories (joints and terminations, oil pressurizing system and temperature monitoring systems). These links will run from Al Jasra (Bahrain) to Ras Al Qurrayah (Saudi Arabia) via Umm An Na’ san Island. The submarine sections will be 40km long and the underground sections 7km long. The overall weight of the cables to be delivered for this project will be over 12,000 tons.
The project to interconnect the power transmission grids of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain is part of a larger-scale project, the GCC Interconnection Grid. It will interconnect most of the major Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman) and eventually have the capability to transport 1200 MVA (by High Voltage Alternate Current transmission).
