NeuConnect

On 20 January 2026, the NeuConnect UK-Germany interconnector project announced the appointment of Supercharge as its Market Integration Platform provider. Supercharge, described as one of Europe's fastest-growing technology companies, was selected to deliver a state-of-the-art Market Integration Platform intended to support NeuConnect's preparations for the start of commercial operations, currently targeted for 2028. The platform will facilitate efficient market integration of the new 1,400 MW HVDC interconnector link between the Isle of Grain in Kent and Wilhelmshaven in Germany, enabling bidirectional electricity trading between the GB and German power markets. This procurement milestone reflects the project's progression from physical construction toward operational readiness, as NeuConnect begins to put in place the commercial and trading systems required to participate in cross-border electricity markets once the interconnector is energised and commissioned. The appointment was announced via the NeuConnect project news page.

Onshore construction for NeuConnect’s German converter station near Wilhelmshaven commenced in 2025, signalled by a groundbreaking ceremony attended by Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the UK Minister of State for Trade. By mid-2025, piling works for the German converter station had been completed, confirming that substantive civil construction activity was underway on the German side.

On 1 August 2025, UK energy regulator Ofgem certified the €2.8 billion NeuConnect project as an Independent Transmission System Operator under the unbundling requirements of the Electricity Act 1989, a prerequisite for the interconnector to commence operations.

On 18 July 2025 NeuConnect began a major new phase of subsea cable installation in UK waters, with Prysmian’s cable-laying vessel Leonardo da Vinci positioned around 12 nautical miles (22 km) off the Kent coast to start laying 140 km of HVDC cable. Over the following three months this campaign was planned to bury the cables beneath the seabed as part of the wider offshore cabling programme between the UK and Germany.

By mid-2025, NeuConnect had completed piling works for the German converter station near Wilhelmshaven. This foundation milestone, reported as finished earlier in 2025, marks substantial progress on the onshore converter infrastructure that will connect the subsea HVDC cables into the German transmission system.

Offshore construction for the NeuConnect interconnector started in 2024, when Prysmian mobilised its Cable Enterprise vessel to install subsea HVDC cables in UK waters, burying them beneath the seabed to protect the marine environment. Project materials indicate that 2024 marked the start of offshore cabling works, and by late 2024 this initial offshore construction phase in UK waters had been carried out.

By late November 2024 NeuConnect had completed the first phase of its cabling works on land and in UK waters, installing a total of 56 km of HVDC cable. This stage included subsea cables laid and buried beneath the seabed by Prysmian’s Cable Enterprise vessel as well as associated onshore sections, marking a significant early milestone in the 725 km cabling programme.

As part of the completed first cabling phase announced in November 2024, NeuConnect finished landfall pull-in works at the Isle of Grain coastline in Kent. Cables were routed through newly installed underground ducts on the shoreline to NeuConnect’s onshore site, completing the initial UK landfall connection between the subsea cables and the inland converter station location.

In October 2024, Prysmian's Cable Enterprise vessel began the first phase of subsea cable installation for NeuConnect in UK waters near the Isle of Grain in Kent. The cable had been loaded at Prysmian's Arco Felice factory in August 2024, with offshore laying commencing later that summer. This first campaign installed 56 km of HVDC cable before pausing for winter.

NeuConnect’s cable installation programme began in 2024, initiating both onshore and offshore cabling works as planned in the project’s delivery timeline. During this initial phase, HVDC cables started to be installed on land and in UK waters as part of the overall 725 km interconnector linking the Isle of Grain in Kent with Wilhelmshaven in Germany.

In late 2023, the first phase of major construction for NeuConnect in the UK was completed. These early works at the Isle of Grain in Kent formed part of the broader construction programme to build new converter station infrastructure and associated assets for the GB–Germany interconnector.

Major onshore construction for the NeuConnect interconnector in Great Britain began in July 2023, marking the start of full-scale works on the UK converter station at the Isle of Grain in Kent and associated onshore infrastructure. Subsequent reports describe foundation works on the UK converter station at peak activity and note that the project was celebrating the second anniversary of this construction start in July 2025.

NeuConnect reached financial close in 2022, securing around €2.8 billion (£2.4 billion) of private investment from a consortium of more than 20 international banks and financial institutions, including the European Investment Bank and Japan Bank for International Cooperation. This project-finance package enables construction of the 725 km, 1.4 GW HVDC interconnector between the Isle of Grain in Kent and Wilhelmshaven in northern Germany.

Permits for NeuConnect’s offshore works in Dutch waters, including installation of the subsea high-voltage cables in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, were granted by the relevant Dutch authorities in 2022 following preparation of permit applications and Environmental Impact Assessments.

On 21 July 2022, the European Investment Bank signed financing totalling approximately EUR 381 million (split across five loan tranches all dated the same day) for the NeuConnect Interconnector, a 1,400 MW HVDC subsea electricity link between Great Britain and Germany. The EIB financing supports the broader EUR 2.4 billion (GBP 2.2 billion) project-finance package assembled by a consortium of more than 20 international banks and financial institutions, enabling construction of the approximately 725 km cable route across German, Dutch and British waters. The EIB's contribution was allocated between the Netherlands (EUR 105 million) and Germany (EUR 276 million), reflecting the offshore route segments through those jurisdictions. The loan was made to special purpose entities established for the project. This multilateral financing milestone complemented the project's financial close achieved in 2022 and demonstrated institutional confidence in the cross-border interconnector's contribution to EU and UK energy security, renewable integration and greenhouse gas reduction targets. The EIB project page (reference 20200756) records the full signature amounts and dates, along with links to the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment documents submitted in September 2021.

By April 2022 NeuConnect had awarded the converter station contract to Siemens Energy, appointing it to design and build two ±525 kV HVDC converter stations—one at Grain in Kent, UK and one near Wilhelmshaven, Germany—as part of more than £1.5 billion of key contracts for NeuConnect’s cabling and converter works.

On 21 April 2022 NeuConnect appointed a joint venture of Arup and Fichtner to provide project services for the interconnector, including project and commercial management, SHEQ management, consenting oversight, and a multidisciplinary owner’s engineer/client representative role for both onshore and offshore elements, supporting delivery of the complex 1.4 GW UK–Germany HVDC link ahead of major construction works.

On 2 March 2022, Prysmian Group was formally awarded a contract worth around €1.2 billion to deliver the NeuConnect interconnector’s full cable system, providing turnkey design, manufacturing, installation, testing and commissioning of approximately 725 km of ±525 kV HVDC mass‑impregnated paper‑insulated land and subsea cables linking the UK and German grids.

NeuConnect and German transmission system operator TenneT finalised a grid connection agreement at the end of 2021, securing the German grid connection point near Wilhelmshaven for the 1.4GW NeuConnect interconnector between the UK and Germany.

Onshore planning permissions for NeuConnect in the UK were awarded by Medway Council, and offshore permissions were granted by the Crown Estate and other relevant UK bodies, providing the necessary consents for the UK converter station, onshore works and use of the seabed.

In 2020, NeuConnect submitted planning applications in Germany for the onshore and offshore components of the interconnector, including the landfall, underground cable route and new converter station near Fedderwarden and Wilhelmshaven.

NeuConnect, a planned 1.4 GW HVDC interconnector between the Isle of Grain in Great Britain and Wilhelmshaven in Germany, was recognised as a Project of Common Interest (PCI) and granted PCI status by the European Commission in November 2020 under the Trans-European Energy (TEN‑E) Regulations, reflecting its contribution to EU competitiveness, sustainability and security of supply objectives and enabling it to benefit from accelerated permitting procedures and potential funding support.

In May 2020, UK energy regulator Ofgem approved modifications to its existing cap-and-floor regulatory regime to enable the delivery of project-financed interconnector schemes such as NeuConnect, confirming that NeuConnect would be developed under Ofgem’s cap-and-floor revenue framework. This decision established a regulated revenue mechanism for the 1.4 GW UK–Germany HVDC link, balancing investor returns with consumer protection.

By 2018–2019, NeuConnect had completed approximately 700km of seabed surveys along the planned interconnector route, providing key geophysical data on seabed conditions to inform detailed design, routing and subsequent planning applications in the UK and other jurisdictions.

Planning applications for the NeuConnect project in the UK, including the GB onshore elements at the Isle of Grain and associated offshore works, were submitted in the 2018–2019 period, with the Environmental Statement lodged with Medway Council as part of the GB onshore application.

NeuConnect undertook an Environmental Impact Assessment for the GB onshore elements and submitted the resulting Environmental Statement to Medway Council alongside the planning application, concluding that most potential impacts would be minor and identifying mitigation for a small number of potentially significant effects.

To meet TEN-E pre-application requirements in Germany, NeuConnect organised a public information and consultation event on 16 August 2019 at Hotel Atlantik in Wilhelmshaven, inviting local press, politicians, residents and stakeholder groups, with feedback from around 60 attendees incorporated into further planning.

NeuConnect held two public consultation events at Grain Village Hall, Isle of Grain, on 20 and 22 June 2019 to display its final proposals for the NeuConnect Interconnector, with invitations sent to over 2,000 nearby households and businesses and a stakeholder preview session for local councillors and community groups.

NeuConnect Britain Ltd, the project company developing the NeuConnect Interconnector between Great Britain and Germany, was established in 2018, marking the formal start of corporate and organisational arrangements needed to progress the 1.4GW HVDC link.

In 2018, NeuConnect Britain Ltd was established as the project company to develop the NeuConnect Interconnector, with the project being developed by an international consortium including Meridiam, Allianz Capital Partners on behalf of Allianz Group, and Kansai Electric Power, supported by developers Greenage Power and Frontier Power. This joint venture structure brings together experienced large-scale energy infrastructure investors to design, finance and deliver the 1.4GW HVDC electricity link between the Isle of Grain in Great Britain and Wilhelmshaven in Germany.

NeuConnect began public consultation activities in Great Britain from autumn 2018 under the EU TEN-E Regulation, holding events to explain the project, outline options and benefits, and gather feedback from local communities and stakeholders near the Isle of Grain.