National Grid Ventures (NGV) is developing plans to deliver Nautilus, a new subsea cable allowing electricity to flow between the UK and Belgium. The new Offshore Hybrid Asset (OHA) could supply enough green electricity to power around 1.7 million UK homes.
Update on Nautilus - July 2025
Following the Initial Project Assessment (IPA) approval by Ofgem in November 2024, Nautilus has now entered a more advanced development stage. The OHA is now proposed to connect to the UK electricity system at the Isle of Grain, Kent.
Work is underway to further refine the converter station site, landfall location, and route corridor.
As part of this process, NGV and its partners are carrying out a series of environmental and technical surveys to support detailed site assessments and inform the design of the project. Survey activity is expected to begin from autumn 2025, with both non-intrusive (walkover) and intrusive (ground investigation) methods being used.
Read our responses to your frequently asked questions
About Nautilus
As an Offshore Hybrid Asset, Nautilus could allow us to connect the electricity systems of Belgium and Greak Britain, to allow us to trade excess power, such as renewable energy created by the sun, wind and water. The North Sea is vital to a secure, affordable, and clean energy future for the UK. This will require pioneering projects like Nautilus, which connect both nations and enable sharing of offshore wind.
With this technology, we hope to reduce the impact of infrastructure on local communities and the environment, as well as support the government’s net zero and energy security targets. We are already working closely with other developers to coordinate activities and minimise impact on local communities. We believe that through improved coordination, the UK government can achieve and support the co-existence of renewable energy with coastal communities.
Meet net-zero targets
Support the UK to achieve its 18GW of interconnection by 2030, as well as net zero by 2050
Strengthen the UK’s energy resilience
By providing 1.4GW of flexible capacity between the UK and Belgian networks.
Decarbonise the UK’s energy system
By introducing enough offshore wind energy into the UK’s electricity system to power around 1.7m homes
Lower bills for consumers
By providing access to the lowest priced energy available between the UK and Belgium.
An Offshore Hybrid Asset (OHA) is a type of interconnector that consists of a subsea electricity cable connecting the UK to neighbouring energy markets.
Nautilus was previously referred to as a ‘Multi-Purpose Interconnector’. However, NGV has updated the term to OHA in line with project development and new terminology introduced by the Department for Energy (DoE) for better alignment with the European markets.
Find out more about Offshore Hybrid Assets
The consultation process
In close collaboration with our Belgian partner Elia, we are assessing options to optimise the configuration of Nautilus so that we can secure the customer and wider energy system benefits it will provide. As part of this development, we will continue key activities, including surveys, in Grain and provide a further update as soon possible.
Materials from our previous consultation can be found below. Please note that these documents no longer accurately reflect proposals for Nautilus.
Consultation documents
Contact us:
Please get in touch if you would like to find out more about Nautilus.
You can contact a member of our Community Relations team as follows:
Freephone: 08081 699 822
Freepost: FREEPOST NAUTILUS
Email: [email protected]