Procurement Other

On 29 June 2023, Prysmian Group announced a €180 million milestone payment to Eastern Green Link 2 Limited (the SSEN Transmission / National Grid Electricity Transmission joint venture) to assure Prysmian's continued cable manufacturing capacity availability for the EGL2 project during the closing stages of contract negotiations. Prysmian had been selected as exclusive preferred bidder in May 2023 to deliver the c.1,000 km of 525 kV HVDC submarine and underground cable forming the 2 GW link between Peterhead in north-east Scotland and Drax in North Yorkshire. The capacity reservation locked in supply-chain slots at a global HVDC cable manufacturer at a point of acute international competition for cable factory output, ahead of the final contract award which was subsequently signed in February 2024 at a value of around €1.9 billion. The arrangement gave the joint venture early certainty over manufacturing slots and underpinned the project's ability to maintain its 2029 energisation target by de-risking the long-lead cable supply package between preferred-supplier selection and contract execution.