Terna, the company that manages the Italian national electricity transmission grid, and STEG, the Tunisian electricity and gas grid operator, have awarded Hitachi Energy a contract for the construction of the converter stations for the Elmed project, the first electricity interconnection between Italy and Tunisia. The infrastructure will be built in Partanna, in the Province of Trapani, Italy, and in Mlaabi, in the Menzel Temime area of Tunisia. The link, based on HVDC technology, will have a capacity of 600 MW and will extend approximately 220 km, mainly via submarine cable, reaching a maximum depth of about 800 metres in the Strait of Sicily. Hitachi Energy is responsible for providing the HVDC solution.
Other companies in the consortium, including D’Agostino Costruzioni Generali for the Partanna station and Orascom Construction for the Mlaabi station, will mainly carry out civil works, as well as electromechanical installations and auxiliary systems.
Elmed fits into a context in which governments and transmission system operators worldwide are accelerating investments in transmission infrastructure in preparation for a fully electrified system capable of integrating renewable energy sources on a large scale, strengthening cross-border interconnections and increasing energy security.
The value of the contract awarded is approximately €770 million. The total investment in the electricity link is €1.42 billion, of which €307 million has been allocated by the European Commission through the Connecting Europe Facility grant programme managed by CINEA.
The project is also supported on the Tunisian side by additional European and international financial institutions, including the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and KfW.
