Nexans to deliver a new centerpiece to Geneva’s Swissgrid electrical network

• In the context of the overhead power line burial project headed up by Swissgrid, Nexans will be supplying and installing nearly 30 km of 220kV underground cable along the Geneva-Cointrin airport
• Nexans will also be in charge of dismantling the existing gas-insulated extra high voltage link (GIL), along with a certain number of civil works
• Nexans’ system will feature a cable temperature monitoring solution

Swissgrid, the national company in charge of Switzerland’s electricity transmission grid, has chosen Nexans through a bidding process for the project of burying the Very High Voltage (VHV) overhead power lines along the southern side of the Geneva-Cointrin airport. The replacement of the overhead cables with underground cables will free up large tracts of land destined for urban development of the greater Geneva area.

Nexans was chosen for this €25 million turnkey contract for its ability to produce and install very high voltage cables and offer engineering services, as well as for its experience managing complex projects.

The Swissgrid project is part of the “Axe Stratégique Réseau” development programs in the canton of Geneva and the Federal Roads Office’s “Redevelopment of the Grand-Saconnex motorway junction”. In the overhead power line burial project, exceptional by its complex nature, both technical and organizational, Nexans will be in charge of certain engineering services, and of taking down and replacing gas isolated links. In addition to producing and installing nearly 30 km of very high voltage cables between the electrical stations of Foretaille and Renfile, Nexans will also install two 144-strand fibre optic links and embed a temperature monitoring feature in the cable system.

As a leader on the very high voltage market in Switzerland, Nexans has already successfully led several urban projects in Basel, Lausanne, Geneva, Bern, and Zurich. Nexans Suisse has also been entrusted with complex very high voltage cable connection projects, such as the connection of the Nant de Drance (2018) and Linth-Limmern (2016) pumped storage power plants to the national grid and the underground cable connection of La Bâtiaz – Le Verney (2022).