Anglo-Scottish electricity superhighway clears final fast-track funding hurdle

Ofgem’s Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework fast-tracks major connection projects which will boost grid capacity and could deliver estimated savings of £1.5Bn (US$1.9Bn), among them the proposed subsea and underground 500-km cable between Scotland and Yorkshire which will help harness the potential of offshore wind. ASTI accelerates the funding process by up to two years, allowing electricity generated by offshore wind to be delivered to consumers sooner.

EGL2 will deliver a 2-GW high voltage electricity ‘superhighway’ cable link between Peterhead in Aberdeenshire and Drax in North Yorkshire. Most of the cable (around 436 km) will be under the North Sea with the remaining 70 km buried underground onshore. Two converter stations, one at each end of the cable, are planned to help feed the electricity transported by the cable into the grid and from there onto consumers.  

Delivered as a joint venture by National Grid and SSEN Transmission, EGL2 will include the longest HVDC subsea cable in the UK and is the UK’s single-largest electricity transmission project ever.  At a total expected nominal investment of around £4.3Bn, it is the single largest-ever investment in electricity transmission infrastructure in Great Britain and one of the most significant, strategic investments in energy infrastructure the country has seen in recent years.

Contracts have now been awarded to deliver the project, including with Prysmian Group to supply around 1,000 km of cable and with Hitachi Energy and BAM for the supply of converter stations at either end of the subsea cable.

Work on the project is expected to begin later this year and to be completed by 2029.