Prysmian Group has reached an important contractural milestone with SP Transmission plc and National Grid Electricity Transmission plc, two of the UK’s transmission grid owners.
Prysmian was selected as exclusive preferred bidder in May this year. The agreement includes an initial payment of €85 million and the assurance of Prysmian Group’s continued capacity availability for the planned construction of the Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL1) cable connection during the remaining period of negotiations that are aimed at concluding the contract this year.
Eastern Green Link 1 is a planned high voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine and underground cable link of around 200 km route length, requiring 400 km of power cable, for the connection between Torness in Scotland and Hawthorn Pit in the North of England. With a power transmission capacity of 2 GW the connection is expected to be the first cable system in the UK to utilise 525 kV HVDC technology with extruded XLPE insulation. An HVAC 400 kV cable system requiring around 30 km of cable for a 5 km route is to connect the converter station and grid substation at the end of the connector in Scotland.
EGL1 forms part of a series of planned system reinforcements required to increase the capability of the existing UK transmission network and facilitate the growth in flows of renewable generation in the north to demand centres to the south, supporting the target of enabling 50 GW offshore wind generation by 2030, and achieving a Net Zero economy by 2050.
