Building of the next stage of the UK’s subsea electricity superhighway is now underway with the Eastern Green Link 1 or EGL1.

Set to cost £2.5 billion, EGL1 received Ofgem’s approval in 2024 and is due to be complete in 2029. Construction of EGL2 already commenced in September.

The subsea electric superhighway is set to transport electricity for some two million properties in the UK.

The 190 kilometre cable will link the regions of northeast England to southeast Scotland. As part of the electric superhighway, the company Prysmian is due to provide a 525 kV (kilovolt) HVDC XLPE submarine cable system.

According to the Eastern Green Link 1 website, the EGL1 will connect green offshore wind electricity to properties onshore. Stages ranging from a marine survey to public consultation took place in 2020 to 2021 with the planning applications for England and Scotland submitted in summer 2022.

With EGL2 and ELG1 now under construction, the next links, EGL3 and ELG4 are due to have their development consent applications submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in 2026.