NKT, Boskalis deliver Oresund interconnector upgrade

NKT and Boskalis have completed the replacement of four high-voltage power cables connecting Sweden and Denmark installed in 1973.

Specifically, the cabling specialist switched the old cables with four new 400 kV XLPE HVAC power cables.

NKT, in a consortium with Boskalis, won the Oresund interconnector contract from the Swedish TSO Svenska Kraftnät.

They replaced the original oil-filled cables with four new power cables in collaboration with Svenska Kraftnät and Energinet in Denmark.

The new cables came from NKT’s high-voltage power cable factory in Karlskrona, running on 100 per cent green electricity.

Executive vice president Claes Westerlind, head of the Swedish high-voltage NKT factory in Karlskrona, said:

“Interconnectors are essential to the power cable infrastructure needed to ensure an efficient integration of the increasing amount of renewable energy produced in Europe.

“We are happy to upgrade the cables across Öresund playing a key part in maintaining the high transmission security of both countries and to strengthen the interconnection of the European power grids.”

The old power cables were also sent for recycling before the new power cables were installed.

Finally, the new upgrade cables landed at the same location and connected to substations at the shores on both sides.

NKT handled the cable design, manufacturing and the onshore installation.

Boskalis retrieved, recycled the old cables and also carried out the offshore part of the cable installation.