NeuConnect

NeuConnect is an high-voltage direct current submarine power cable under construction since 2023 between the Isle of Grain, England and Wilhelmshaven Germany, expected to operate in 2028. The cost of GB£2.4 billion (€2.8 billion) is financed by Meridiam from France and German Allianz Capital Partners.

Project status
The main construction phase started in 2023. , operation was expected to start in 2028. On 21May 2024, Gregory Hands and Robert Habeck made a symbolic groundbreaking in Germany.

Route
The cable will run between a new substation on the Isle of Grain, in Kent in England to the Fedderwarden substation in Wilhelmshaven in the Lower Saxony region of Germany. Landfall will be next to Grain Coastal Park, in Kent, and at Hooksiel, near Wilhelmshaven in Germany.

At $725 km$ in length, the interconnector will be one of the longest worldwide.

Economics
As of 2022 the project was expected to cost GB£2.4 billion (€2.8 billion). The project is expected to deliver GB£1.7 billion in consumer benefits to UK consumers over 25 years, and could deliver a net reduction in carbon emissions of over 13MtCO2 in the same time.

The project is privately financed by Meridiam from France and German investors include Allianz Capital Partners. It is planned to exchange electricity on days with excess production on one side and a deficit on the other side of the Channel, as both countries have been expanding their wind turbine capacities and production has become more volatile. Britain, an electricity importer, where 5.4 percent of its 2020 demand was covered from abroad, hopes that the connection will lead to lower electricity costs for consumers, where the price of electricity has been permanently higher than in Germany.

Technical specification
The HVDC link will consist of two main cables, each approximately 720 km long, together with a much thinner fibre optic cable for temperature and acoustic sensing for about 150 km from each landfall. The DC element will operate at 525kV, with a maximum capacity of 1,400MW.

History
Historically, both countries already have had interconnectors through the North Sea with other countries: NordLink between Norwegian hydropower plants and German wind power and Britain as net electricity importer has interconnectors with France, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Neuconnect Britain Ltd. was established in 2018. NeuConnect received Interim Project Approval from Ofgem in January 2018. Public consultation events were held in July 2019. In December 2019, the planning application was submitted to Medway Council and invitations to Tender were launched In January 2020, the Federal Network Agency in Germany (BNetzA) confirmed the NeuConnect interconnector project in its 2019-2030 grid development plan. In April 2020, Neuconnect completed site survey work on the Isle of Grain. A €1.2 billion cable contract was awarded in February 2022, and substations contract in April.

In July 2022, the project reached financial close, allowing early construction works to begin later in 2022. In October 2022, the cable manufacturer Prysmian started production of the 725km cable. , early construction works had started in Wilhelmshaven and Isle of Grain, and manufacture of the cable had started.