Borealis organises New York “Energy Infrastructure Symposium 2011”

Leading experts to debate changing energy sources and impact on tomorrow’s power grid

Borealis, a leading provider of plastics solutions for the global wire and cable industry, will stage the Energy Infrastructure Symposium 2011 for an invited audience in New York City from October 4-5, 2011.

Industry experts will discuss how to meet today’s challenges for improving and adapting the electric grid infrastructure, in front of an audience of asset managers from utilities, test institute representatives, senior management of wire and cable producers and academics.

Explaining the background to the event, Marc Hubert, Vice President for Borealis Wire & Cable, says, “To meet the nation’s ambitious energy policy goals, our industry must not only explore new methods of generating electric energy, but also find innovative ways to transform the existing grid such that it can deliver this energy to customers in a reliable, secure and economical way.” He adds that the Energy Infrastructure Symposium 2011 will provide an excellent forum for experts to debate this major challenge, which advanced societies are required to meet now, to ensure a sustainable energy supply for generations to come.

“The New York symposium will provide a forum for industry leaders to discuss the impact of the development of renewable energy on today’s transmission and distribution (T&D) systems and the changes that have to be made,” says Hubert.

At the symposium, hosted at The Standard Hotel in Manhattan, industry experts will highlight today’s challenges in the interconnection of electric power infrastructure. Presentations will cover such subjects as the future energy mix, the challenges of integration of renewable energy in the existing power infrastructure, offshore power transmission from a cable maker’s perspective, the performance and reliability of the current power infrastructure, challenges of undergrounding high voltage and extra high voltage cables, and how smart grids will impact on technology and infrastructure.

Symposium participants will also have the opportunity to tour Borealis’ state of the art compounding site in Port Murray, New Jersey which serves customers in North and South America. This stand-alone compounding facility, dedicated to Wire and Cable production specialises in medium and high voltage insulations, semi-conductive and automotive cable grades. Borealis Compounds Inc. also acts as a distributor for products manufactured by other Borealis plants.

The Energy Infrastructure Symposium 2011 is a key part of a global programme of events organised by Borealis. The Wire & Cable Academy global concept was initiated three years ago by Borealis and Borouge—a joint venture between Borealis and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. The objective of Borealis and Borouge is to facilitate knowledge sharing between their key value chain stakeholders as well as to enhance industry standards and support future developments of innovative Wire & Cable solutions. There are now several academies around the world with programmes tailored to each region. Events have already been staged in Brazil and Russia while more are planned in China (led by Borouge) and South Africa in November.

“We want to increase awareness of the performance and reliability of the existing power delivery infrastructure and gain a better appreciation of the opportunities and challenges that result from developing a more reliable network,” says Hubert. “The audience should also come away with a more in-depth perspective of the benefits, challenges and key considerations of implementing smart grids.”

Borealis and Borouge are leading innovators in plastics-based solutions for the Wire & Cable industry. Together they have pioneered advances in insulation systems and jacketing solutions for both energy and communications cables through various global brands, which include Supercure™, Visico/Ambicat™, Borcell™, Borstar® and Casico™. The companies deliver step-change technological solutions along the value chain that respond directly to needs for production, installation and cable-system lifetime enhancements.

Borealis and Borouge Business Units Wire & Cable

Borealis is the world’s leading provider of innovative, value creating plastics solutions for the wire and cable industry. Our solutions are customer-driven and designed to satisfy the industry’s continuously evolving demands for higher technical performance. They can be found in the most challenging extra-high voltage (EHV) and high voltage (HV) cable applications, as well as medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) energy transmission and distribution cables, building wires, and communications cables. In answer to the need for production, installation and cable-system lifetime enhancements, we create the innovation links that secure world-class, step-changing solutions and benefit the whole wire and cable value chain.

About Borealis and Borouge

Borealis is a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions that create value for society. With sales of EUR 6.3 billion in 2010, customers in over 120 countries, and 5,100 employees worldwide, Borealis is owned 64% by the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) of Abu Dhabi and 36% by OMV, the leading energy group in the European growth belt. Borealis is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and has production locations, innovation centres and customer service centres across Europe and the Americas.

Through Borouge, a joint venture between Borealis and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of the world’s major oil and gas companies, the company’s footprint reaches out to the Middle East, Asia Pacific, the Indian sub-continent and Africa. Established in 1998, Borouge employs approximately 1,600 people, has customers in more than 50 countries and its headquarters are in Abu Dhabi in the UAE and Singapore.

Building on Borealis’ unique Borstar® technology and their more than 50 years experience in polyolefins, Borealis and Borouge provide innovative, value creating plastics solutions for the infrastructure (pipe systems and power and communication cables), automotive and advanced packaging markets. In addition, Borealis offers a wide range of base chemicals from melamine and fertilizer to phenol and acetone.

Today Borealis and Borouge have a manufacturing capacity of over 5.4 million tonnes of polyolefins (polyethylene and polypropylene) per year having recently completed a 1.5 million tonne expansion in Abu Dhabi.The Borouge 3 plant expansion will be completed at the end of 2013 with a further capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per year (t/y) being fully operational in mid-2014. The companies continue to invest to ensure that their customers throughout the value chain and across the globe, can always rely on product quality, consistency and security of supply.

Borouge and Borealis are committed to the principles of Responsible Care® and proactively contribute to addressing the world’s water and sanitation challenges through their Water for the World™ initiative.

For more information visit:
www.borealisgroup.com