ScottishPower secures £600m National Wealth Fund loan for EGL4 subsea link
- £600 million loan from the National Wealth Fund to ScottishPower/Iberdrola to finance the Eastern Green Link 4 subsea HVDC interconnector.
- EGL4 is a 2 GW, 530 km bidirectional HVDC subsea cable between Fife and Norfolk, capable of transmitting the equivalent of powering 1.5 million UK homes.
- Iberdrola plans £12 billion (€14 billion) of UK network capex through 2028, while NESO estimates £58 billion will be required in Great Britain by 2035 for the clean power system.
Financing
ScottishPower, via Iberdrola, secured a £600 million loan from the National Wealth Fund to support development of the Eastern Green Link 4 subsea HVDC interconnector; this follows a prior £600m NWF loan in May 2025 for seven ScottishPower network initiatives.
Project details
EGL4 is a 2 GW bidirectional HVDC subsea cable of about 530 km between Fife and Norfolk, designed to transport domestically generated Scottish electricity to England with capacity equivalent to roughly 1.5 million homes and to reduce constraint costs.
Strategic context
The National Wealth Fund has prioritised grid investment and can offer longer-tenor facilities to better align debt profiles with asset lives; NESO estimates £58 billion will be required in Great Britain by 2035 to deliver the clean power system.
Network investment and workforce
Iberdrola plans approximately £12 billion (€14 billion) of UK distribution and transmission capex through 2028, and ScottishPower is set to expand its transmission workforce in central and southern Scotland to support delivery.
Source: Iberdrola