A Norwegian cable company grows its capacity and proves its commitment to electrification, Nicola Brittain reports
Norway-based Nexans has just finished celebrating the launch of an expansion to its high voltage subsea cable plant in Halden, Norway. The company argues that this build is a demonstration of its commitment to electrifying the future.
The plant construction began in November 2021 and incorporates some of the most advanced cable production technology worldwide according to the company, meaning it can deliver subsea cables (primarily for wind turbines) of up to 525kV for HVDC and 420kV for HVAC.
A new tower
The 34,000 square metre expansion more than doubles the capacity of the plant for HVDC extruded cables, it also features a 152.89m tall second extrusion tower which will allow the plant to insulate four cables simultaneously in addition to the two existing lines – the tower is currently Norway’s tallest building.
This build will help the group meet the increasing demand for electrification, especially in the American and European markets driven by a record project backlog, a €1.7bn contract with Tennet, and a €1.43bn contract for the EuroAsia Interconnector project. This new strategic asset will also directly and indirectly create hundreds of jobs worldwide.
The tower was built at a difficult time, during lockdown, in which according to one of the factory managers, “suppliers were going bust, there were order bottlenecks and the world faced general global economic uncertainty.” He added, “we are very proud to have finished the build on time when facing such difficult economic conditions.”
The company streamlines capacity
In recent times the company has streamlined its activities to focus on the supply of electric cables, accessories and associated services across the entire value chain from the power generation phase through power transmission and distribution to the end customer.
To date, the company has completed over 443 subsea interconnection projects representing 46GW of installed capacity or 10,680km of subsea cables. For offshore wind, Nexans has either manufactured or installed subsea export cables for 42 windfarms globally, representing 64.3GW of offshore wind capacity.
IPE attended the expansion launch and caught up with the leader of the company’s generation and transmission team and executive vice president of Nexans Pascal Radue on the company’s aims for the future.
Redue, who has a background in power generation, explained that the new tower was a response to a big drive among its traditional customers to decarbonise oil and gas fields and that Nexans were helping partners do this in “the quickest and most sustainable way possible.”
“We want to help the world move from fossil fuels to renewable energy. But wind doesn’t give the same output to the grid as a traditional generator. The challenges are that when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine need we will need to access stored energy or transmit it from a place where there are these resources. These are two key parts to the renewable energy puzzle and cables can help to solve them.”
Standards needed
Redue explains that there is currently a capacity constraint within the sector and that this would be helped enormously by creating an industry standard around these advanced cables and their transmission. “Our projects are currently extremely bespoke meaning that their manufacture is incredibly time consuming,” he says.
Redue continues, “the real game in this industry, is that we are able to deliver. In order to maintain the speed of the energy transition as well as groundbreaking developments there are a lot of processes required to ensure that there are no surprises. The industry is all about securing execution – from the drawing board to reality.”
The company is supporting sustainability in other ways too, and recently set up a foundation to support sustainable initiatives and bring access and energy to disadvantaged communities worldwide. The group is recognised on the CDP Climate Change A list as a global leader on climate action and is committed to Net-Zero emissions by 2050, aligned with the science-based targets initiative.
The company also recently ramped up capacity by acquiring La Trivaneta Cavi, a European leader in medium and low-voltage cables. The company primarily manufacturers low voltage cables for building, infrastructure fire-retardant cable systems and renewable energy applications across 30 countries.
Nexans CEO Christoper Guerin says of the acquisition: “This is fully in line with our vision of Nexans as a global electrification pure player. This move significantly strengthens our presence in the electrification pure player segment.”
For more information visit: www.nexans.com
