LS Cable & System (LS C&S) announced that it has begun mass production of 525 kV High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cables for the first time at its plant in Donghae-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea.

A press release said that few manufacturers have succeeded in commercializing the high-voltage cables. The 525 kV DC cables will be used for TenneT’s 2 GW grid connection systems BalWin4 & LanWin1.

LS C&S signed a long-term supply contract with TenneT last May that it said was the largest single order ever obtained by any cable company in the world. The use of HVDC is increasing, especially in long-distance transmission networks, because this cable can transmit large amounts of power over long distances with lower losses compared to AC (alternating current). It is primarily used for long distance cables to connect offshore wind and interconnectors to accelerate especially the grid expansion in Europe. The European Union has recently increased their offshore targets to 60 GW by 2030 and 300 GW by 2050.

In other news, LS EcoEnergy CEO Lee Sang-ho said that the company—a business of LS C&S—has entered into negotiations to secure land for a submarine cable project in the U.K. “If we succeed in localizing in Europe, we will be able to secure economic feasibility and supply our products not only to the U.K. but also to neighboring countries.”

The goal is to lease land at the Port of Tyne in the northeast. The size of the project site, including the port, is approximately154,711 sq m. LS EcoEnergy’s negotiations will be conducted jointly with Global Interconnection Group (GIG), a British energy sector investment company. GIG is known to be pursuing a multi-billion-dollar offshore grid (undersea cable connection) project between the U.K. and Iceland.

As noted earlier, Europe plans to expand the power generation capacity of offshore wind farms, and the industry believes that the supply of submarine cables will be absolutely insufficient compared to the power generation plan, the release said. “In addition to the expansion of subsidies, the trend of excluding products from certain countries due to security concerns is also becoming an advantageous factor in localization.”

LS Cable & System is actively pursuing the expansion of its subsea business, targeting North America, Europe, and Asia, through cooperation with LS EcoEnergy and LS Marine Solutions.