COMETA: HVDC Submarine Cable to Link Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands

For REE (Red Electrica de España), the owner and operator of the largest part of Spain’s power transmission grids, a consortium between Nexans and Prysmian Cables & Systems delivered a high voltage DC 250kV/500MW submarine power link between the Spanish mainland and the Balearic island of Mallorca. The submarine power cable is 240km long and is buried in the sea at a depth of maximum 1410m. COMETA, the name of this project (abbreviation for COnexión MEditerránea Transporte Alta tension), is of strategic importance for the development of Spain’s national energy transmission network, and links the biggest island in the Balearic archipelago with the mainland, providing access to generating capacities available on the peninsula.

LIOS’ multi mode and single mode Distributed Temperature Sensing systems offer real time temperature surveillance of this important link to avoid overheating of the submarine conductors and subsequently power outage.