June 6, 2012

Prysmian Group inaugurated its new submarine cable plant in Finland, having invested approximately €40 million to increase its production capacity at the Pikkala facility, already one of the Group’s centres of excellence for high voltage cable production. In particular, the Pikkala plant has started up production of transmission cables that use HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) technology allowing large amounts of energy to be transmitted over long distances.

“The realisation of major renewable energy development projects in Northern Europe, particularly in Germany, also involves developing suitable new power transmission connections, especially for offshore wind farms, explains Marcello Del Brenna, CEO of Prysmian PowerLink. Prysmian is world leader in this field and in order to support the demands of this growing industry it is engaged in a major investment programme to expand production capacity and maintain its technological leadership”.

In addition to the investment of some €40 million in Finland, the Group is also involved in expanding production capacity at its Arco Felice plant in Italy, the Group’s centre of excellence for submarine cables, following acquisition of the Western Link order worth around €800 million to build a new submarine link between Scotland and England.

In addition, the integration between Prysmian and Draka has further broadened the range of products and services offered also in the field of renewable energy. The Group can now utilise three production facilities dedicated to submarine cables: Arco Felice (near Naples) in Italy, Pikkala in Finland and Drammen in Norway. With this extended production footprint, Prysmian Group is able to present itself to the market as a reference partner for linking mainland grids to individual offshore wind turbine towers, with an offer ranging from medium voltage inter-array cables, to HVAC and HVDC export cables up to 320 kV.