French copper and optical fiber cable manufacturer Nexans has completed the installation and testing of a 445 km subsea and land mass-impregnated 500 kV HVDC (high-voltage direct current) cable for the 500 MW MONITA (MONtenegro – ITAly) power interconnection project. It will link the Cepagatti converter station in Pescara (Italy) to the Kotor converter station near Budva (Montenegro).
The MONITA project was unveiled in 2010, when Terna and CGES, the power transmission network operators (TSOs) from Italy and Montenegro agreed on an initial commissioning date in 2018. The €340m cable-laying contract was awarded to Nexans in 2012.
The project was originally slated to have an interconnection capacity of 1,000 MW but it was halved to 500 MW in April 2018 due to a slower then expected pace of construction of renewable projects in the Balkans. Besides, it has also been postponed and the commissioning date of the project is now expected for 2019.