HVDC interconnections in the Mediterranean Basin

Up to now, the African countries in the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea exported large quantities of natural gas and crude oil to the European northern shores. Nowadays, issues of security of supply, integration of the electricity markets, economic co-operation among countries are also driving attention to the "electricity" option to export energy from the South to the North of the Mediterranean. In the last years, especially Algeria, Spain and Italy analyzed the feasibility of interconnection by means of underwater cables. In this paper we describe the main characteristics of some HVDC interconnection projects, whose feasibility studies were performed by CESI: the interconnection Algeria - Spain, the cable connecting Sardinia and Peninsular Italy (SAPEI) and the interconnection Algeria - Italy