Nexans has been named preferred supplier for a second Mallorca-Menorca power cable, beginning design work on a link Red Eléctrica says could strengthen Menorca’s energy security and add renewable supply.
Nexans announced the selection Oct. 22 and said its agreement with Red Eléctrica opens a six-month engineering phase for a 132-kilovolt alternating-current system spanning subsea and land infrastructure. The work is intended to prepare for a later EPCI contract.
Red Eléctrica’s plan covers 82 kilometers in all: 64.5 km underwater, 13.7 km across Mallorca and 3.8 km across Menorca. The cable would join new substations in Alcúdia and Ciutadella, with its undersea section reaching a maximum depth of 146 meters.
The grid operator estimates the link could allow 26,887 megawatt-hours of renewable energy to be integrated annually. It projects the project could lower Menorca’s carbon dioxide emissions by 154,000 metric tons a year and reduce electricity-system costs by about €36.3 million annually. Red Eléctrica also expects the connection to reduce reliance on the Maó thermal power plant.
Red Eléctrica said the corridor was selected to limit disturbance to Posidonia seagrass meadows, reefs and fishing. On land, the route is expected to follow road rights-of-way where possible.
The project is intended to give Menorca a second link to Mallorca. The islands’ existing connection entered service in 2020; Red Eléctrica said the earlier cable connected the Balearic electricity system with mainland Spain and strengthened Menorca’s supply security. In February, Balearic regional minister Alejandro Sáenz de San Pedro said Menorca should not rely on a single electricity link and that another connection would improve system security and stability.
Red Eléctrica said the project entered public consultation in February, following environmental and routing studies that had been underway since 2022. Nexans expects project delivery to begin in mid-2027, after the engineering phase.
