National Grid selects Sumitomo for Sea Link subsea cable project

National Grid has named Sumitomo Electric Industries as the preferred bidder to supply and install the 138-kilometre subsea cable for Sea Link, a new two-gigawatt (GW) high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electricity connection between Kent and Suffolk in the UK.

The cable will be manufactured at Sumitomo Electric’s new £350 million factory, currently under construction at the Port of Nigg in Scotland. The facility will create around 150 jobs and will mark the first time in approximately twenty years that HVDC transmission cable has been manufactured in the UK.

According to National Grid, Sea Link will run through the Thames Estuary and the North Sea, linking converter stations in Kent and Suffolk. It added that the Sea Link project is designed to increase capacity in the electricity network, enabling more renewable electricity to flow where it is needed.

The award for the supply and installation of Sea Link's subsea cable follows the recent selection of Siemens Energy to build the project's converter stations.