LS Cable & System to Supply Submarine HVDC Cables for European Customers

LS Cable & System will be the first cable maker in Korea to introduce the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cables to the European market. On April 15 the company announced that it would supply 24.5km of 285kV extra high voltage submarine cables and connectors to Energinet.dk, and 25.7km of 150kV alternating current extra high voltage submarine cables and connectors to Van Oord in the Netherlands, a leading international contractor specializing in offshore projects.

In particular, the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cables supplied to Denmark will be the first such cables to be exported. It will be used to replace one of the old submarine cables installed between Jutland and Laesoe Island in the northeastern part of Denmark. HVDC refers to the method of converting the alternate current generated by the power plant into direct current, transmitting it and converting it back into alternate current and supplying it. It can transmit a large quantity of electric power over a long distance with the minimum loss. The extra-high voltage cables used for this purpose must be robust against the high voltage applied to the cables during transmission of direct current. Only LS Cable & System can make such HVDC cables in Korea. The entire HVDC market is worth only KRW 4 trillion as of 2012, but is expected to rapidly grow and be worth more than KRW70 trillion. So the HVDC cable market is also expected to grow fast. Accordingly, LS Cable & System is as good as having established a bridgehead for entrance into the global HVDC market.

The cables supplied to the Netherlands will be used to connect the Dutch power grid to the Luchterduinen Offshore Wind Farm, which will consist of 43 wind turbines and is being constructed in the North Sea. The Offshore Wind Farm is scheduled to commence operations in 2015. Especially wind power generation is well developed in the Netherlands and Denmark thanks to the windy climate of the Northwestern Europe, and the North Sea where the submarine cables of LS Cable & System will be used has elements so advantageous to wind power generation that it is called the ‘rechargeable battery of Europe.’ Accordingly, these contracts put the company in an advantageous position for making inroads into the European wind power generation market and the new emerging market for replacing old submarine cables.

“Thanks to these contracts, we have successfully made inroads into new markets and high-value-added state-of-the-art cable market,” said Mr. Jae-In Yoon, Executive Director and Head of the Sales & Marketing Division of LS Cable & System. “We will try and penetrate overseas markets with focus on strategic items like extra-high voltage submarine cables and HVDC cables.”