Positive
Project advancing - milestone achieved
High Impact
Major milestone or critical setback
On 10 March 2023, INELFE — the joint venture equally owned by Spain's Red Eléctrica and France's RTE — awarded the main EPC contracts for the Bay of Biscay electricity interconnection, marking the effective Final Investment Decision for the €3.1 billion project. The contracts were awarded to Prysmian Group (submarine and underground cable scope, ~€800 million) and Hitachi Energy (converter stations at Gatika and Cubnezais). The INELFE structure has no traditional FID event — the binding contract commitment and the Regulators' updated cross-border allocation decision (CRE, 2 March 2023) together represent the moment capital was committed. RTE's 2023 management report cites this date as marking the start of work on the Bay of Biscay interconnector. The final investment is funded by the two transmission system operators (~€2.39bn shared 50/50, plus additional tranches) plus a €578 million CEF grant from the EU and (later) €1.2 billion in EIB loans.