Installing the submarine power cable between Italy and Montenegro, which connects the Balkans and the European Union, has been completed, the Terna company confirmed for TVCG public broadcaster.
The cable was installed from the Skarerak ship owned by the Norwegian Nexans company, which is specialised for cable laying. The total length of cable between Pescara and the Jaz cape is 455km. Out of that the submarine cable part is 433km long.
At the beginning of 2015, Terna laid 136km from the Italian coast and installing 157km of the cable from the Montenegrin side, from the Jaz cape to Italy was completed in early December last year.
The cable laying was performed at the bottom of the Adriatic Sea at up to 1.200 meters depth, with a nominal capacity of direct current transmission of 1,000 megawatts (MW).
The entire project of the power connection between Montenegro and Italy should be completed by the end of next year.
Earlier it was announced that optical telecommunication cable will be installed at the same time with the power one.
At the beginning of October last year, the onshore cable installation from the Montenegrin side began. The cable is about six kilometres long and runs from the Jaz cape to the Lastva transmission substation.
Within this project, Montenegrin Power Transmission System (CGES) is building the Lastva substation and 400kV transmission line Lastva-Cevo-Pljevlja.
For the construction of the Lastva substation as part of the main project, €38.5m will be invested, whereas the investment for transmission lines from Lastva to Cevo and Cevo to Pljevlja will amount to €28.5m and €39m respectively.
The Ministry of Sustainable Development issued a building permit to the Terna Montenegro company at the beginning of the year to construct the substation in Lastva Grbaljska.
This converter station worth €80m will be located in the immediate vicinity of the Lastva Grbaljska substation, which CGES is building within the same project. The same converter station is being built on the Italian side near Pescara.
The agreement on connecting Italy and Montenegro via the power cable was signed in mid-November 2010. The total value of the project amounts to about €1bn.
