Prysmian Case Study – Orkney

Building connections with Scottish and Southern Energy

Prysmian’s factory in Wrexham, North Wales has been making power cables for the UK’s electricity companies for over 50 years.

One of our major clients is Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE).  SSE are a leading generator of renewable electricity in the UK and Ireland and one of the largest electricity network companies in the UK.

Through Prysmian’s Key Account Management structure SSE can rest assured that Prysmian has the knowledge, pride and skills to help even the most complex projects succeed.

Getting the details right

One of the highlights of 2020 has been the Pentland Firth East Project on the Orkney Isles off the north coast of Scotland.

SSE commenced a £30 million programme to replace a submarine electricity distribution cable connecting Orkney to mainland Scotland.  As part of the project SSE replaced existing overhead lines with 23km of Prysmian’s single core 630sqmm copper conductor 33kV underground cable.

Prysmian manufactured and stored the 33kV cable at the Wrexham factory ahead of schedule to give SSE flexibility in call off times. This even helped SSE build in an extension to the programme to avoid construction during bird breeding season on the island.

As environmentally aware companies Prysmian and SSE worked together to arrange for Prysmian to collect all the empty wooden drums and return them to Wrexham for reuse.

Clearing the site for SSE and ensuring that packaging waste was kept to a minimum.

A testament to partnerships

“We’re delighted to work in partnership with Prysmian as part of the Pentland Firth East project, which is one of the biggest standalone projects our distribution business has undertaken in recent years. Working with Prysmian gives us the assurance that high standards will be met, which is vital in the delivery of this critical project to support strengthened supply to the islands for years to come.”