Work underway to pour more than 5,000 cubic metres of concrete to form huge 17,000m² base for UK Converter Station

The delivery of NeuConnect – a vital new energy link between the UK and Germany – is continuing to make good progress, with work starting this week on the concrete slab that will form the base of a new UK Converter Station.

Led by global investors Meridiam, Allianz Capital Partners, Kansai Electric Power and TEPCO, the £2.4bn NeuConnect project will be one of the world’s largest interconnectors. New converter stations will be built on the Isle of Grain in Kent and Wilhelmshaven in northern Germany, connected by 725km of land and subsea cables to form an ‘invisible energy highway’ between two of Europe’s largest energy markets. The new link will allow 1.4GW of electricity to flow in either direction, helping to boost energy security in both countries while also supporting Clean Power 2030 goals.

With major construction well underway and firmly on track, NeuConnect’s UK construction site at the Isle of Grain is now a hive of activity, with over 100 people working on site. Earlier this year, main contractor Siemens Energy completed piling works to form the foundations of the UK Converter Station, allowing work to now start to create the huge concrete slab that will form the base of the Converter Station. Some 5,775m³ of concrete will be poured in total to create a concrete slab covering a 17,350m² area – the equivalent of two and a half full size football pitches or 66 tennis courts. Once completed, Siemens Energy will then begin work on the above ground ‘super structure’ of the UK Converter Station in the coming weeks.

This latest phase of UK works follows other good progress on subsea cabling works (where the first phase of cabling was completed last year and will resume later this summer), and at NeuConnect’s construction site in Germany where piling works on the Converter Station were recently completed by Siemens Energy, with a total of 1,800 piles now drilled and set. The manufacture of crucial components for the project is also on track, with recent visits to the factories of contractors Prysmian and Siemens Energy offering chance to see the production of NeuConnect’s cabling and some of the new equipment and technology for the project’s Converter Stations.

NeuConnect CEO Arnaud Grévoz said: “With the start of NeuConnect’s latest phase of UK works, we can see the foundations of a vital new energy link taking shape. From our busy UK and German construction sites, through to the factories of our main contractors, there is a now a hive of activity across all parts of the project, helping to keep NeuConnect firmly on track.”

NeuConnect is expected to be operational by 2028. For further information on the NeuConnect project, please visit neuconnect-interconnector.com.