Japan’s Sumitomo Electric Industries has won a USD200 million contract from South Korean Samsung C&T Corporation to deliver high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable to connect Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s (ADNOC) offshore operations to Abu Dhabi National Energy Company’s (TAQA) onshore power grid in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), also known as the ADNOC–TAQA Lightning Project.
The entire power-from-shore project will comprise two HVDC power links of 3,200 MW capacity, which will connect two clusters of offshore oil and gas production facilities to the mainland power grid, a distance of up to 140 km for each cluster. The first cable cluster comprises three 400 kV subsea cables of 135 km each and will connect Das Island to Abu Dhabi’s mainland. The second cluster entails four 320 kV submarine cables of 125 km each and will connect Al Ghallan island to the mainland. The project will enable the transfer of cleaner and more sustainable onshore power sources from Abu Dhabi, such as solar panels and local nuclear power. Sumitomo Electric has secured the ‘limited notice to proceed (LNTP)’ contract to deliver its state-of-art 400 kV DC cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cable technology. The joint venture (JV) of South Korean electric utility Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), French power utility Electricité de France (EDF) and Japanese electric utility Kyushu Electric Power Company (Kyushu EPCO) is developing the project on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis. It will be developed by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) jointly owned by ADNOC and TAQA (30 per cent stake each), and the KEPCO-EDF-Kyushu EPCO consortium (40 per cent stake). The project is expected to complete in 2025.