Balfour Beatty has won a contract to deliver the British onshore civil works for the Viking Link interconnector, the first high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) link between Great Britain and Denmark.
Under the GBP 90 million four-year contract, Balfour Beatty is responsible for the civil engineering and installation of 68km of high-voltage cabling across Lincolnshire, connecting Denmark to Great Britain at National Grid’s Bicker Fen substation.
Works are due to commence in January 2020 with completion scheduled for the end of 2023. At peak construction, Balfour Beatty said it will employ a workforce of 160.
“This contract is a major milestone in the next part of the project. We’re pleased to be working with Balfour Beatty, who will deliver the onshore cable installation section of the Viking Link Interconnector between landfall site at Sandilands and the Converter Station at Bicker Fen,” said Mike Elmer , Viking Link Project Director for National Grid Ventures.
“Viking Link will enable Great Britain to import and export electricity; provide a secure supply of affordable electricity and play a vital role in helping to decarbonise the UK’s power supply on our journey to a net zero carbon energy system.”
When completed, Viking Link will be a 760km long DC interconnector line between Revsing in southern Jutland, Denmark, and Bicker Fen in Lincolnshire, UK.
Prysmian Group is in charge of providing 1,250km cable for the project’s submarine route and all of the approximately 135km of land cables on the UK side.
NKT will manufacture and deliver the onshore cables to be installed in Denmark. Siemens will deliver two converter stations for the 1,400MW interconnector.