InterConnect Malta launches a maritime survey for the second Malta-Italy interconnector
Interconnect Malta (ICM) is starting the offshore works of the preliminary maritime route survey (PMRS) for Interconnector 2, the second undersea electricity cable between Malta and Italy.
On Thursday, the 60-meter vessel Urbano Monti left the Grand Port to begin surveying a 600-meter-wide seabed corridor along the proposed route of the interconnector, which extends about 100 kilometer from Baħar i-ħagħaq to Marina di Ragusa, in Sicily. The maximum seabed depth of this route is expected to be 160 meters.
The PMRS is essential for the development of Malta’s second interconnector, because it will provide bathymetric, geophysical, and geotechnical information to design the safest and most sustainable submarine cable route. It will also provide the data needed to design cable burial methods and physical protection for the overall electrical scheme.
Interconnect Malta designed the preliminary route to avoid sites of ecological importance as well as bunkering, aquaculture, tourist, fishing and trawling areas, and other restricted areas. To ensure effective redundancy, the design also keeps this cable as far as technically possible from Interconnector 1, the first submarine electricity cable between the two countries energized in 2015.
Italian survey company Fugro SpA, was contracted to run the PMRS earlier this year, following an international call for tenders. It will be using the offshore survey vessel Urbano Monti, which is equipped with advanced positioning, multi-beam echo-sounder, side scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, magnetometer, ROV, coring gravity, cone penetrometer, sample collection and other equipment necessary to carry out high quality survey according to the project requirements.
Near shore survey works started in Sicily last week using a smaller vessel, while a near shore survey in Baħar iħ-ħaghaq, Malta will start soon. Depending on weather conditions, the offshore survey will continue until mid-October. The contractor then proceeds with data analysis and reporting.
Interconnect Malta has also recently issued other calls for tenders for the front-end engineering design (FEED) of this project and for the environmental impact assessments (EIA) required as part of the procurement processes. permits applicable to this development in Italy and Malta. Thereafter, the company will issue a call for tenders for the Engineering, Procurement and Commissioning of this new interconnector.
In addition to increasing security of supply to meet current and future electricity demand, Interconnector 2 will also provide the reserve capacity needed to accommodate the intermittency of the share’s power production increasing Malta’s renewable energy sources connected to the grid, which contributes to the country’s climate objectives, for a better quality of life.
Source: InterConnect Malta Ltd.