On 13 January 2026, National Grid Lion Link Limited opened an eight‑week statutory public consultation on updated proposals for the LionLink interconnector, including the Kiln Lane substation connection, a converter station east of Saxmundham, underground HVAC and HVDC cable routes, and landfall at Walberswick; the consultation, supported by a PEIR and other documents at deposit locations and online, runs until 10 March 2026 under the Planning Act 2008.
On 22 August 2025, National Grid completed the award of its HVDC civil works supply chain framework, confirming six converter civil works contractors and three onshore cable civil works contractors for an estimated £12 billion of work. The frameworks, which cover confirmed projects including LionLink, provide designated partners for onshore cable and converter station civil construction, with National Grid and contractors such as Murphy highlighting that these agreements are essential to progressing LionLink and other HVDC projects as part of the UK’s Great Grid Upgrade.
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LionLink is a proposed Offshore Hybrid Asset (OHA) HVDC interconnector linking Dutch offshore wind (Nederwiek 3) and the electricity grids of the Netherlands and Great Britain. The project is designed to both bring offshore wind generation ashore and provide point-to-point interconnection between...
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Lion Link, EuroLink, Euro Link, NESO TEC PRO-000983
On 13 March 2025, National Grid awarded major HVDC cable and converter systems supply chain framework contracts worth around £59 billion, establishing long-term agreements with six subsea HVDC cable suppliers and four HVDC converter system suppliers. The frameworks, secured for five years with possible extension, cover both confirmed and anticipated projects and are explicitly intended to support early schemes including LionLink by locking in critical HVDC equipment capacity and strengthening the supply chain needed to develop and deliver the interconnector.
National Grid awarded HVDC converter systems framework contracts to GE Vernova, Hitachi Energy, Mitsubishi Electric and Siemens Energy, covering projects including LionLink. Framework agreement, not project-specific award.
On 19 February 2025, National Grid Ventures selected Walberswick in Suffolk as the preferred landfall location for the LionLink subsea interconnector, refining the UK cable route engineering for the project. Walberswick was chosen over an alternative Southwold route because it enables a shorter onshore cable route (19.9 km vs 32.8 km), thereby reducing environmental impact and disruption to residents, and because it is less susceptible to coastal erosion and flooding, making it more suitable for long-term operation of LionLink.
On 13 January 2025, Dutch Climate and Green Growth Minister Sophie Hermans included the LionLink hybrid interconnector in the Netherlands’ Offshore Wind Energy Development Framework. This designation confirms that LionLink will use the offshore grid connection of the Nederwiek 3 offshore wind farm to link to both the Dutch and UK high-voltage grids, allows TenneT to start investing in the project in cooperation with National Grid Ventures, and sets the stage for subsequent decisions on market design for the Nederwiek 3 tender and on EU–UK market coupling arrangements needed for LionLink’s effective operation.
On 30 August 2024, TenneT finalised and submitted a Structural Congestion Report for the LionLink hybrid interconnector to the Dutch regulator ACM, in accordance with Article 14(7) of Regulation (EU) 2019/943. The report identifies structural congestion on the HVDC link between TenneT’s offshore platform and the Dutch onshore grid, explains the methodology and scenarios used, and is intended to inform a subsequent Dutch government decision on whether to adjust the Netherlands’ bidding zone configuration.
In May 2024, Next Geosolutions commenced a detailed cable route survey in UK waters for the LionLink multi‑purpose interconnector between the UK and the Netherlands. The campaign, starting on or around 15 May, covers marine geophysical, nearshore and intertidal surveys, marine geotechnical investigations, and ROV utility‑crossing surveys along corridors from the Walberswick and Southwold landfalls that join and run northeast towards the Dutch Exclusive Economic Zone, with several dedicated survey vessels deployed for approximately 156 days.
In 2023, National Grid Ventures undertook a second non-statutory public consultation on refined early proposals for the LionLink interconnector, again focusing on siting and routing options for onshore infrastructure and using the feedback to develop the preferred scheme ahead of statutory consultation.
Shortly after LionLink was launched in April 2023, National Grid Lion Link Limited applied to the UK energy market regulator Ofgem for an electricity interconnector licence, seeking authorisation to participate in the operation of the LionLink HVDC interconnector in Great Britain.
In July 2023, UK energy regulator Ofgem granted an electricity interconnector licence for the LionLink project, enabling National Grid Lion Link Limited to operate the proposed Anglo‑Dutch HVDC interconnector within the Great Britain regulatory framework.
In June 2023, TenneT contracted marine survey company GEOxyz to carry out geophysical and geotechnical surveys for the export cable route of the Nederwiek 3 offshore wind farm, whose offshore grid connection will be used by the LionLink interconnector. This contract enables detailed site investigation along the Dutch export route that will ultimately connect Nederwiek 3 and LionLink into the Dutch onshore high‑voltage grid.
On 24 April 2023, National Grid Ventures and Dutch transmission system operator TenneT entered into a development agreement to collaboratively develop the LionLink multi-purpose interconnector, a first-of-its-kind Anglo-Dutch electricity link that could connect up to 2 GW of offshore wind to both the British and Dutch grids via subsea HVDC cables, marking the formal establishment of a co-development structure for the project.
On 24 April 2023, National Grid Ventures and Dutch transmission system operator TenneT announced plans for LionLink, a first-of-its-kind multi‑purpose HVDC interconnector linking offshore wind in the North Sea to both the British and Dutch electricity grids. The announcement, made around the North Sea Summit in Belgium, confirmed a development agreement under which the parties would study and develop a 2 GW offshore wind connection and cross‑border link as an initial step towards an integrated North Sea grid. UK and Dutch energy ministers publicly backed the project as a key measure to support decarbonisation, energy security and regional energy integration.
In 2022, National Grid Ventures (through National Grid Lion Link Limited) carried out a first non-statutory public consultation on early LionLink proposals, presenting initial siting and routing options for the onshore infrastructure in Suffolk and inviting community feedback ahead of later statutory stages.
On 23 August 2022, the UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy issued a direction under Section 35 of the Planning Act 2008 confirming that the LionLink interconnector scheme should be treated as a development for which a Development Consent Order (DCO) is required. This decision formally places LionLink within the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime, meaning its UK onshore and offshore elements must be consented through the DCO process.
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