The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to provide €130m in finance to Terna Energy Group for the Piedmont-Savoy project.
The project will link Italy and France through the new 190 km long 320 kV direct current electricity interconnector.
It is a high-voltage power interconnector between Piossasco (Italy) and Grande-Île (France) that will offer a cross-border exchange capacity of 1200 MW.
The European Commission has identified the Piedmont-Savoy interconnector as a project of common interest (PCI) at community level. The power line will be fully integrated within the transmission infrastructure system.
Upon completion of the project, the exchange capacity between Italy and France is estimated to increase by 40%. The interconnector is expected to start its operations at the end of 2019.
The Piedmont-Savoy project will be the fourth interconnector between the two countries.
EIB vice president Dario Scannapieco said: “This operation confirms the EU bank's engagement in the vital sector of energy networks and further consolidates its fruitful partnership with Terna: in recent years we supported with EUR 1 billion financings in total the Italian network operator’s key investment plans to upgrade and develop the electricity transmission network.”
In June 2017, the lender agreed to offer €300m loan to Norwegian operator Statnett for the completion of a 1.4GW Nordlink interconnector between Germany and Norway.
The new interconnector project is expected to electricity market integration in both the countries and on a broad-scale in the Northwestern Europe and Scandinavian countries.