Nexans installed a 500 kV HVDC subsea cable at 2,150 m depth on the Tyrrhenian Link project, setting a world record for deepest HVDC subsea cable installation.
As of 30 September 2025, Terna reports substantial construction progress on the Tyrrhenian Link’s cable connections and converter substations. Civil works for the construction of cable trenches and laying of the first and second poles are well advanced in Sicily and Campania, and at the converter substations the structural components of the main buildings are being completed, with production of main equipment progressing, the prefabricated control building assembled, and valve rooms and DC buildings under assembly at Eboli and Termini Imerese.
On 16 September 2025, Terna and Nexans began the first installation phase of the Tyrrhenian Link’s western section, starting from Fiumetorto in the municipality of Termini Imerese (Palermo) to lay the high-voltage direct current subsea cable that will connect Sicily and Sardinia, designed to reach record installation depths of up to 2,150 meters below sea level.
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Tyrrhenian Link is a planned IT‑IT high‑voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnector developed by Terna to electrically link Sicily, Sardinia and the Italian peninsula and to increase cross‑regional exchange capacity, system security and integration of renewable generation. The infrastructure com...
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Tyrrhenian link electricity corridor, Tyrrhenian Link power transmission project, EIB Project No. 20220162
In May 2025, Terna and Nexans completed installation of the first of the two 500 kV HVDC subsea cables on the Tyrrhenian Link’s eastern section between Sicily and Campania, prior to beginning laying activities on the western section between Sicily and Sardinia.
On 9 February 2024, Terna and the European Investment Bank signed the final €500 million tranche of the EIB’s €1.9 billion financing for the Tyrrhenian Link. Concluded on the sidelines of the EIB Forum in Luxembourg, this long‑maturity loan completes the development bank’s funding package for the 970 km, 1,000 MW double subsea cable interconnector between the Italian mainland, Sicily and Sardinia.
Since February 2024, Terna has been uprooting and replanting about 230 olive trees in Selargius (Cagliari) and about 1,700 olive trees in Termini Imerese (Palermo) in the areas where the Tyrrhenian Link converter substations and East/West sections will be built, as part of site preparation and environmental mitigation works. The activities include pruning, careful reorientation and replanting of the trees, followed by irrigation, fertilisation, and ongoing agronomic monitoring in collaboration with local authorities.
As part of the December 2023 update of Italy’s Recovery and Resilience Plan to include a REPowerEU chapter, the Tyrrhenian Link secured €500 million in EU funding. This grant‑type support, provided under REPowerEU and referenced by Terna and Nexans, finances part of the HVDC submarine cable system between Caracoli (Sicily) and Eboli (Campania) and underpins the project’s role in integrating southern Italy’s renewable generation into the national grid.
In September 2023, Italy’s Ministry of Environment and Energy Security approved the Sicily–Sardinia connection, the western section of the Tyrrhenian Link HVDC subsea interconnector. The consent covers a 480 km cable between the Fiumetorto landing point in Sicily and Terra Mala in Sardinia, enabling Terna and Nexans to proceed with detailed construction works for this part of the 1,000 MW Tyrrhenian Link.
In March 2023, the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed second and third finance contracts with Terna for the Tyrrhenian Link, providing additional debt financing totaling €900 million. Together with the earlier €500 million tranche, these loans form part of a €1.9 billion EIB package earmarked to fund construction and commissioning of the interconnector’s east and west sections.
Terna awarded a consortium led by Siemens Energy, together with Italian partner FATA, a contract to supply four 500 kV HVDC converter stations for the Tyrrhenian Link interconnector between mainland Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. Siemens Energy will deliver the main converter technology, transformers and switchgear, while FATA and its civil partners will handle civil works and installation, enabling up to 1 GW of power transfer per section, with converter station construction scheduled for completion by the end of 2028.
Construction works (cantieri) for the interzonal Tyrrhenian Link West branch were started in 2023, following project authorisation in 2023, as reported in Terna’s 2025 Development Plan documentation.
In 2023, Terna carried out major environmental reclamation works at the former fruit and vegetable market in San Nicola Varco, Eboli (Salerno province), where a future converter station for the Tyrrhenian Link will be built, removing over 4,000 tonnes of largely hazardous abandoned waste, demolishing old structures, and safely handling asbestos-containing materials. Similar reclamation was completed at Caracoli (Termini Imerese, Palermo province) ahead of converter station works for the East section, and asbestos reclamation and waste removal activities were started at Selargius (Cagliari) for the future West section converter station site.
In November 2022, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Terna signed the first finance contract for the Tyrrhenian Link, providing a €500 million long‑term loan as part of a wider €1.9 billion EIB financing package. This initial tranche supports construction and commissioning of the 970 km, 1,000 MW subsea interconnector linking mainland Italy, Sicily and Sardinia.
On 8 November 2022, Terna signed an initial €500 million loan tranche with the European Investment Bank (EIB) as part of a €1.9 billion financing package for the Tyrrhenian Link submarine electricity cable connecting mainland Italy, Sicily and Sardinia.
Terna Rete Italia awarded Prysmian Group a framework contract worth about €1.71 billion covering the Tyrrhenian Link, appointing Prysmian to design, manufacture, supply, and carry out subsea and land installation and commissioning of over 1,500 km of HVDC submarine and land cables, including electrode and monitoring fibre systems. The cables will be produced at Prysmian’s Arco Felice plant in Naples, with installation mainly by the cable‑laying vessel Leonardo da Vinci, to support power exchange between Sardinia, Sicily and Campania on the new 1,000 MW interconnector.
On 30 November 2021, Terna Rete Italia announced the award of the main cable supply framework contracts for the Tyrrhenian Link multi-terminal HVDC interconnection between Italian mainland Campania (Eboli), Sicily (Caracoli/Termini Imerese) and Sardinia (Selargius). Prysmian Group was awarded a framework contract worth approximately €1.71 billion covering the design, manufacture, supply and installation (both subsea and land) plus commissioning of over 1,500 km of 500 kV HVDC submarine and land cables, including electrode and monitoring fibre systems, to be produced at Prysmian's Arco Felice plant near Naples and at Pikkala, Finland. On the same day, Nexans was awarded a parallel frame contract worth more than €650 million for additional cable supply and installation scope, including the world-record-depth subsea cable segments that would later be laid between Sicily and Sardinia at up to 2,150 metres below sea level. The combined awards of 30 November 2021 constitute the cable supplier selection milestone for the entire Tyrrhenian Link programme and preceded the FID on 8 November 2022 and the onshore construction start in early 2023. This event closes the missing_milestone cable_supplier_selected health check warning that had remained despite the earlier epci_contract_awarded event covering the same date.
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