Attendees at the grand opening ceremony held on Oct. 22, 2009, at the Prysmian extra high-voltage (EHV) cable manufacturing facility had much to hear, see and say about this facility as they learned about the extrusion technology as well as the drivers pushing for buildout of the North American power grid.

Utilities including Arizona Public Service, Consolidated Edison and Hydro-Québec have already received high-voltage cables manufactured at Prysmian's vertical continuous vulcanization (VCV) cable facility that contains two separate manufacturing lines. This voltage facility, which can manufacture cables at voltages up to 400 kV, is 16 stories high and cost US$46 million (31 million euros) to build. The plant is located in Abbeville, South Carolina, U.S.

General Wesley Clark, an independent member of the Prysmian board, had this to say at the ceremony: “As an American, I am glad Prysmian is here. I am glad to be involved in bringing jobs here to America. And now with the lower dollar, the decision to manufacture here is looking even more promising.”

Clark continued, stating, “The real strength in America is in the economy and the diligence and strength of the American people.”

Of course, money is flowing toward the grid buildout today. Steve Lindbenberg, senior advisor with the Department of Energy, shared that his organization has been authorized to spend $60 to $80 billion to invest in the east, west and Texas grids. “We have to look into the future,” stated Lindenburg, “and we need a grid that is smart, capable and controllable. It is possible but will require a lot of planning, building and operating.”

“Prysmian fully expects the investment in this facility to be an integral part of the overhaul of the North American grid,” said Martin Hanchard, president and CEO of Prysmian's North American operations. “This grid buildout is being driven by the increasing need for reliability and efficiency, as well as the challenges represented by the advance of renewable energy and the emergence of smart grid-enabling technologies.”

ATTENDEES SPEAK OUT

Attendees were also vocal in their thoughts.

“In an age when most of our equipment for transmission infrastructure comes from overseas, it is great to see this Prysmian facility located on U.S. soil,” said Jerry Donovan, senior vice president and COO of Georgia Transmission Corp. “This plant will create local jobs and help keep money in the U.S. economy, and it also will help attract more students to science and engineering studies. We will need these new graduates as we continue to modernize our grid in future years.”

John Rector, vice president, Energy with Black & Veatch, added, “This new facility is exciting, because it should provide competitive pricing, shorter delivery times and convenient access to our employees and our customers. It marks a new era in manufacturing in high-voltage cable on U.S. soil.”

Rick Hartlein, director of the Georgia Tech NEETRAC testing facility, stated, “This plant will play an important role in meeting our ability to construct significant portions of our power grid that is to be placed underground.

“Simply supplying a product is not sufficient,” continued Hartlein. “Prysmian worked hard to assure that the new facility will produce cable with the highest possible quality. And to assure that the cable from this facility will perform reliably for many years to come, they are performing a series of qualification and evaluation tests at laboratories around the world. This includes a type test on a Prysmian 230-kV XLPE cable now underway at NEETRAC located 120 miles (193 km) south of the new Prysmian facility.”

SITE TOUR

A plant tour of the facility that took two years to construct provided customers with the opportunity to see how the cable is manufactured and to talk with the persons responsible for operations in each area of cable manufacturing, including wire drawing, stranding, and extruding and jacketing. Attendees also were shown the testing facilities where each reel of cable is quality-assurance tested for partial-discharge levels prior to being shipped.

The cable from this facility is manufactured in voltages up to 400 kV and in lengths up to 1 mile (1.6 km). The finished product is loaded onto reels up to 17 ft (5 m) in diameter that weigh up to 50 tons.