National Grid opens EGL5 consultation on 585km Scotland-to-Lincolnshire link

The Eastern Green Link 5 (EGL5) project would run a high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable from Scotland to the Lincolnshire coast, with National Grid estimating it could supply power to approximately two million homes and businesses across Lincolnshire and the East Midlands. The route has been revised since initial discussions in 2025, with community feedback shaping the current proposals now out for consultation.

The updated design centres on a subsea corridor chosen specifically to minimise interactions with offshore wind farms, Marine Protected Areas, and existing marine infrastructure. Onshore, a single cable route running north of Huttoft would connect the landfall at Anderby Creek to a preferred converter station site northeast of Bilsby, with that onshore section extending up to 8km. Underground cabling would then tie the converter station into the infrastructure proposed under the Grimsby to Walpole project.

What EGL5 means for commercial buyers in the East Midlands

UK baseload day-ahead power over the last 12 months provides the price backdrop against which transmission reinforcements like EGL5 are intended to ease constraints.

For energy buyers with sites in Lincolnshire and the East Midlands, the project is relevant in two ways: grid resilience and future network charge trajectories. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has identified EGL5 as a priority reinforcement to close the gap between where power is generated and where it is consumed. Stronger transmission capacity in this region typically supports tighter balancing costs and, over time, can reduce the locational pressures that feed into Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) charges for demand customers.

Key facts buyers should hold:

• Consultation window: 29 May to 24 July 2026, open to East Lindsey residents and stakeholders
• Cable length: 585km subsea, plus up to 8km onshore between Anderby Creek and the converter station
• Converter station: preferred site northeast of Bilsby, Lincolnshire
• Onshore tie-in: underground cabling connecting to the Grimsby to Walpole project
• Programme context: EGL5 sits within the Great Grid Upgrade, the broadest UK transmission investment programme in decades
• NESO designation: identified as a critical reinforcement for power transfer from generation zones to demand centres

EGL5 sits alongside a series of parallel east-coast interconnection projects. The cumulative effect of the Great Grid Upgrade is expected to reshape TNUoS zonal demand charges as transmission constraints ease, though the timescale for those charge movements depends on final consenting and construction milestones that remain some years away.

Buyers with multi-site portfolios in the East Midlands should monitor the consultation outcome and subsequent Development Consent Order process; the converter station location and onshore route will be material to any future network charge reform in the region. National Grid has confirmed it will continue engaging with local authorities and businesses as the project advances.