Fugro has been selected by Terna SpA, owner of the Italian national transmission grid (NTG) for high and extra-high voltage power, to perform a large multidisciplinary survey for part of the Tyrrhenian Link, a nationally strategic project to install two undersea HVDC electrical power cables connecting the Italian peninsula with the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

The Tyrrhenian Link interconnection is part of a 10-year plan to provide an increasingly secure and resilient electricity grid, operated with the most cutting-edge and reliable technology. Fugro has won the contract to survey the East Link section of the project, which will connect Campania on the mainland to Sicily via the installation of two 480 km submarine cables and two submarine electrodes. The reconnaissance multibeam survey begins this month and will be followed by a detailed marine geophysical survey utilising Fugro’s state-of-art remote operation vehicles (ROVs) and team of specialists; both surveys will acquire comprehensive Geo-data that will be used to provide geohazard risk mitigation advice to help Terna identify the final cable installation routes.

Rodolfo D’Addario, Country Manager for Fugro in Italy, said: “The Tyrrhenian Link interconnection is strategically important infrastructure for Italy’s energy transition and the results from our surveys will help Terna design the most cost-efficient and feasible route. The ‘invisible’ undersea cables will increase transmission capacity and allow the best use of energy flows from renewable sources for an increasingly decarbonised system.”