National Grid has named the first two tranches of strategic suppliers it will use to for its High Voltage Direct Current infrastructure programme.

Six HVDC cable suppliers will share £21.3bn, while and four other suppliers have secured spots on the HVDC Converter station framework, worth £24.6bn. Both Frameworks cover both confirmed and anticipated projects.

Partners for the key third part of the framework, worth £12.8bn, covering civils and major project contractors for onshore infrastructure have still to be announced.

The successful cable suppliers are: Hellenic & Jan De Nul Consortium, LS Cable & System, NKT Cables, Prysmian Group, Sumitomo Electric and Taihan Cable & Solution.

The HVDC converter systems framework has been awarded to: GE Vernova, Hitachi Energy, Mitsubishi Electric and Siemens Energy.

Contracts have been secured for a five-year period, with the potential to extend for a further three years.

Carl Trowell, President of Strategic Infrastructure at National Grid, said: “This is another exciting milestone in delivering the greatest overhaul of the grid in a generation – The Great Grid Upgrade.

“We are committed to building the infrastructure that will enable our country’s current and future energy needs, at pace. This framework allows us to harness National Grid’s scale to access global supply chains, drive efficiencies, foster innovative technologies and contribute to the UK’s economic prosperity.”

Suppliers on the framework will support the delivery of early projects including Eastern Green Link 4, Sealink, Lionlink and other projects of a similar size and nature.