Submarine cable tender teaser issued for second Malta-Italy interconnector

InterConnect Malta, owned by the Maltese government, has issued a prior information notice (PIN) for the tender for the manufacture and installation of the submarine cable for the second electrical interconnector between Malta and Italy.

The contracting authority plans to issue a tender for the detailed engineering, manufacture, transport, installation, laying, and protection of a 225 MW 220kV, 50Hz subsea cable link between and including transition joints at l-Ghallis, Malta, and Marina di Ragusa, Sicily in Italy.

The preliminary technical requirements and subsea route of this project have been established by a front-end engineering design (FEED) study and after a preliminary marine route survey and environmental studies were commissioned.

The tender will seek the provision and installation of approximately 99 kilometers of submarine cable complete with a transition joint at each end. Shore approaches shall be performed by a horizontal directional drilling (HDD) technique and the contractor shall construct two transitional joint bays, one at Maghtab and one at Ragusa, and carry out the qualified transition jointing works.

The contractor will also be responsible for carrying out a detailed survey and engineering process to determine the final route and design of the submarine cable, its installation and protection.

The estimated date of publication of a contract notice within this procedure is July 1.

The IC2 interconnector will consist of a new ~122-kilometer-long 225 MW HVAC electrical cable interconnection between the Terna substation at Ragusa, Sicily, and the Enemalta terminal station in Maghtab, to be laid in parallel to the existing HVAC cable link which was commissioned in 2015.

The overall interconnector cable link will be composed of a land cable in Sicily approximately 21 kilometers long, a three-core submarine cable approximately 99 kilometers, long and a 2-kilometer land cable in Malta.

This second Malta-Sicily cable link is part of the Maltese Government’s future energy strategy for meeting the 2030 climate and energy targets and the longer-term decarbonization objectives. The start of operations is planned for the second quarter of 2026.

The Maltese Planning Authority gave approval for the project’s development permit in January.

Tenders have been issued for the procurement of shunt reactors and autotransformer, and for the onshore cable and works in Italy and Malta. Tenders are being finalized for the procurement of the subsea cable and for switchgear in Ragusa.