Eastern Green Link 5

On 13 October 2025 the Secretary of State / Planning Inspectorate adopted a Scoping Opinion for Eastern Green Link 5, confirming the required scope and topics for the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the English onshore and inshore elements. The Scoping Opinion followed consideration of the submitted scoping report and stakeholder responses and set the assessment topics and study boundaries to inform subsequent survey work and the Environmental Statement.

On 2 September 2025 National Grid submitted the Eastern Green Link 5 Environmental Impact Assessment Scoping Report (Volumes 1–3, appendices and figures) to the Secretary of State / Planning Inspectorate. The scoping submission documented study areas, routing and siting considerations, environmental constraints (ecology, ornithology, heritage, fisheries, shipping), and figures to define the scope of the forthcoming EIA/Environmental Statement for the English onshore and inshore elements of EGL5.

SSEN Transmission (with National Grid) held a Marine and Landfall consultation event in Peterhead on 27 August 2025 to present an indicative offshore cable corridor from 12 nautical miles to the Scottish‑English maritime border and a broad landfall search area on the Aberdeenshire coast. The event sought stakeholder feedback to inform landfall and nearshore route selection.

The ROV survey was scheduled to last approximately 20 days and therefore was due to be completed around 12 August 2025; this completion date was an estimate provided in the Notice to Mariners issued for the EGL5 ROV operations.

GEOxyz commenced an offshore ROV survey for Eastern Green Link 5 on 23 July 2025. The campaign used a Triton XLX work‑class ROV to conduct targeted visual inspections (including around existing cables and pipelines) within the defined offshore survey area; the operations were notified to mariners and included vessel contact and fisheries liaison details.

National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) requested a direction under section 35 of the Planning Act 2008 from the Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to enable submission of a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the English onshore and English-waters marine elements of Eastern Green Link 5. The request was made as part of the project’s consenting strategy so that NGET can submit a single DCO (covering English onshore and marine works) to the Planning Inspectorate if the Secretary of State grants the s.35 direction. SSEN Transmission will separately seek consents in Scotland and Scottish waters.

SSEN Transmission and National Grid Electricity Transmission established a joint development for the Eastern Green Link 5 (EGL5) project. The partnership was formed following guidance from the National Energy System Operator (NESO) to develop a 2 GW HVDC subsea link between Aberdeenshire and Lincolnshire. Under the joint arrangement, SSEN Transmission assumed responsibility for consenting in Scotland and Scottish waters while NGET took responsibility for consents on the English section; both parties collaborated on project design, routeing and stakeholder engagement during early development (stage 1 consultation concluded June 2025).

The USV campaign ran for approximately two months through June 2025 and was used to map the seabed and sub‑seabed (MBES and sub‑bottom profiler data) along the proposed EGL5 corridor from the Lincolnshire coast towards the Scottish border to inform route planning, engineering and environmental studies.

National Grid (in partnership with SSEN Transmission) deployed four uncrewed survey vessels (USVs) from Scarborough at the end of April 2025 to begin geophysical seabed mapping for Eastern Green Link 5. The XOCEAN-operated USVs carried multibeam echo sounders and sub‑bottom profilers to collect bathymetry, seabed and shallow sub‑seabed data along the proposed EGL5 route, supporting route engineering, environmental assessment and archaeological appraisal.

National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) submitted a formal request to the Secretary of State under Section 35 of the Planning Act 2008 on 17 April 2025 seeking a direction that the proposed converter station (the English onshore element of Eastern Green Link 5) should be treated as development for which a Development Consent Order (DCO) is required. The request covered the onshore converter station in Lincolnshire and indicated that the English onshore and inshore marine elements would be included in a DCO application, enabling NGET to pursue statutory consenting for the project’s connection infrastructure.

A Marine Scotland entry records applications for geophysical, benthic and geotechnical survey licences for the Netherton corridor (Aberdeenshire) on 20 January 2025; SSEN Transmission (Scottish consenting lead for EGL5) has indicated it will apply to the Marine Directorate Licensing & Operations Team for Scottish waters. Contractor Ocean Infinity was scheduled to begin geotechnical survey work for EGL5 on 23 November 2025 (vessel A7803) with completion planned by end-February 2026 to inform landfall and route selection.

A minority stake transaction in SSEN Transmission completed in November 2022, resulting in SSEN Transmission being 75% owned by SSE plc and 25% owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board. The change altered the ownership structure of the transmission company that is a named developer of EGL5 and therefore affected the project’s developer ownership profile.