Positive
Project advancing - milestone achieved
High Impact
Major milestone or critical setback
On 28 December 2019, the FIRST POLE of the 500 kV HVDC MONITA interconnector between the Villanova (Italy) and Lastva (Montenegro) substations entered commercial operation, providing 600 MW of bidirectional interconnection capacity via approximately 445 km of submarine and underground cable. This was the first of two planned poles for the 1200 MW bipole scheme — Pole 2 (Second HVDC Module IT-ME) is under construction separately for December 2026 commissioning. Reclassified from commercial_operations_full_power to first_power during manual audit review 2026-04-15: commercial_operations_full_power implies the project is operational at full nameplate capacity, which requires both poles of a bipole. With only Pole 1 in service the correct classification is first_power. The project status is part_operational until Pole 2 reaches COD.