Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2024-05-22
Buyer: Department of Contracts
Country: MT
Contract type: Works
CPV classification: 31321500 | 31343000 | 32562300 | 45112100 | 45315400
Estimated value: 185000000 EUR
Submission deadline: 2024-07-01

Technical requirements: The Contracting Authority intends to issue a tender for the detailed engineering, manufacture, transport, installation, laying, and protection of a 225MW 220kV, 50Hz subsea cable link between and including transition joints at l-Ghallis (Malta) and Marina di Ragusa, Sicily (Italy) to further diversify the island’s energy sources and meet the projected increase in electricity demand from economic growth and electrification of the transport sector whilst enabling the integration of more and larger indigenous renewable energy sources.  The preliminary technical requirements and subsea route of this project (shown below) have been established by a front-end engineering design (FEED) study and after a preliminary marine route survey (PMRS) and environmental studies were commissioned by the contracting authority.  The Contractor shall design in accordance with the parameters and constraints established in the tender documentation but shall carry out a detailed survey and engineering process to determine the final route and design of the submarine cable, its installation and protection.
Interconnector 2 is a c.122km cable link that will be operated at a nominal 220kV, 50Hz between the Terna substation at Ragusa, Sicily and the Enemalta terminal station in Maghtab, Malta. Its nominal continuous power throughput in any direction is 225 MW.
The overall interconnector cable link will be composed of a land cable in Sicily of length approximately 21km, a three-core submarine cable of length approximately 99km, and a land cable in Malta of length approximately 2km.  The capacitive reactance of the cable shall be compensated by shunt reactors on both sides. It is intended that the interconnector is normally switched on from the Ragusa side.
Tenders have been issued for the procurement of shunt reactors and autotransformer (CT3004/2024), and for the onshore cable and works in Italy and Malta (CT3003/2024). Tenders are being finalised for the procurement of the subsea cable and for switchgear in Ragusa.
This Prior Information Notice pertains to the tender for the detailed engineering, manufacture, transport, installation, laying, and protection of a 225MW 220kV, 50Hz subsea cable link between and including transition joints at l-Ghallis (Malta) and Marina di Ragusa, Sicily (Italy) to further diversify the island’s energy sources and meet the projected increase in electricity demand from economic growth and electrification of the transport sector whilst enabling the integration of more and larger indigenous renewable energy sources.  The Contractor shall design in accordance with the parameters and constraints established in the tender documentation but shall carry out a detailed survey and engineering process to determine the final route and design of the submarine cable, its installation and protection.
The main components of the project consist of:
a.	Provision and installation of approximately 99km submarine cable complete with a transition joint at each end. With reference to the ETRF2000 UTM33N co-ordinate system, the co-ordinates of the transition joints are E 449399.171; N 3978755.072 (Maltese side) and E 459198.596; N4070769.806 (Italian side).  Additional field joint/s will be required if the economic operator is unable to lay the cable in one run.
b.	Shore approaches at both Malta and Sicily shall be performed by a horizontal directional drilling technique and contractor shall construct two transitional joint bays, one at Maghtab and one at Ragusa and carry out the qualified transition jointing works.
c.	The cable shall be laid in relatively shallow corridor in the Mediterranean with a maximum water depth of c. 171m.
d.	Depending on the soil/sand type and bathymetry of the seabed a mixture of mechanical protection techniques are required to protect the cable.  These include:
•	Trenching, laying and burial of cable to a depth varying between 1.5 and 3 metres depending on the seabed soil,
•	Cast iron shells, and 
•	Rock placement.

This tender is being co-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Funding Programme 2021-2027