Sea trial for Great Sea Interconnector cable completed successfully

An undersea trial of the type of cable to be used to form the Great Sea Interconnector, to connect the energy grids of Greece, Cyprus and Israel, was completed successfully, cable construction company Nexans said on Tuesday.

The company said that in testing the cable, it “set a new world record”, with the cable having been installed and tested at a depth of 3,000 metres beneath the surface of the sea.

“Following recovery of the cable… comprehensive electrical testing and visual inspection confirmed the integrity of the cable system and its ability to perform under extreme deep-water conditions,” it said.

Nexans had earlier this year formally acknowledged that the delivery schedule for those cables is being renegotiated, pushing the planned completion date into the next decade, though Cyprus Energy Minister Michael Damianos had earlier promised that the project “will not collapse”.

Following those comments, European Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said that the European Commission will provide “strong political and technical support” for the interconnector.

This support, he said, will include “dedicated events and high-level discussions, as well as additional engagement on geopolitical issues”.

He lamented that the fact that Cyprus is at present the only European Union member state not connected to the continent’s interconnected energy grid “limits its integration into the internal energy market and makes it difficult to integrate renewable energy sources”.

On the interconnector itself, he said that the project’s progress “has been affected by a complex geopolitical context, with implications for timetables and costs”.

Much of the attention related to the project so far has been related to the interconnection of Cyprus and Greece, with the two countries’ governments having appeared to have been at odds over the matter in recent months, though Damianos had on this matter insisted that they now have “a common line on this specific issue”.

This, he said, was “established during the brief discussion” he held with his Greek counterpart Stavros Papastavrou on the sidelines of the European Union’s transport, telecommunications, and energy (TTE) council meeting in Brussels in December.

In November last year, the governments of Cyprus and Greece jointly announced that the “economic and technical parameters” of the project would be “updated” with a view to attracting more investors to the project.

These new economic and technical parameters are to come alongside a fresh feasibility study.