Montereau, France – January 22, 2007 –Silec Cable has been awarded a $70 million underground high-voltage project, which is part of a $1.3 billion Middletown-Norwalk, Connecticut electric transmission project. This joint project led by Northeast Utilities Services Company and The United Illuminating Company is expected to be completed in 2009. The high-voltage underground portion of the project consists of approximately 69 miles of a new 345kV synthetic insulated cable system including 225 pre-molded joints. The cables will contain embedded optical fibers for temperature monitoring of the links. The Silec Cable portion of the project includes cables and jointing components, as well as a complete set of services, including engineering, installation supervision, and on-site jointing.

This award follows the recent successful completion and commissioning of a 14.4-mile 345kV synthetic insulated cable system supplied by Silec Cable as part of the Bethel-Norwalk, Connecticut transmission project, which is the longest installation to date in the United States. The high-voltage synthetic insulated cable technology, pioneered by Silec Cable, which was acquired by General Cable in December 2005, has been installed worldwide up to 500kV. This technology represents a significant improvement over the pipe-type High Pressure, Fluid Filled (HPFF) techniques used in the United States in terms of cost efficiency, ease of installation and maintenance, and environmental concerns.

“We are proud to have successfully partnered with Northeast Utilities for the Bethel-Norwalk project and to be chosen by both Northeast Utilities and United Illuminating for the larger-scale Middletown-Norwalk project,” said Bernard Ernot, President of Silec Cable. “These projects set the stage for a broader use of synthetic insulated cable systems by United States utility companies for the upgrade and expansion of their high-voltage energy transmission networks to reliably meet the growing demand of their customers.”