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Zurich-headquartered Hitachi Energy has won a contract worth about €770m ($873m) to build converter stations for the Elmed electricity interconnection between Italy and Tunisia.

The contract was awarded by Italian transmission system operator (TSO) Terna and Societe Tunisienne de l’Electricite et du Gas (Steg).

The award completes the procurement process for the first high-voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine electricity link between Europe and North Africa.

The project will connect Partanna in Sicily with Mlaabi in Tunisia’s Cap Bon region. It will have a transmission capacity of 600MW and extend for about 220 kilometres, most of it via submarine cable beneath the Strait of Sicily.

The converter stations were procured under a joint tender issued by Terna and Steg in 2023 through the Official Journal of the European Union.

The scope covered the design, supply and construction of the two converter stations.

Hitachi Energy will provide the HVDC system, including converter valves, the MACH digital control platform, power transformers and high-voltage switchgear. Its scope also includes system studies, engineering, installation supervision and commissioning.

Italy’s D’Agostino Costruzioni Generali will carry out the civil works for the converter station in Partanna. Egypt’s Orascom Construction will undertake the civil works, electromechanical installations and auxiliary systems for the Mlaabi station.

The Elmed project is designed to strengthen electricity interconnection between Europe and North Africa and improve energy security in the Euro-Mediterranean region. It is also intended to support the integration of renewable energy into the electricity grid.

In September 2025, MEED reported that Italy’s Prysmian Group had won a €460m contract to deliver the connecting cable that will run between the Partanna and Mlaabi substations. It will cross the Strait of Sicily at depths of up to 800 metres. Installation will be carried out using the cable‑laying vessel Monna Lisa.

The total investment in the interconnection amounts to €1.42bn. The European Commission has allocated €307m through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) grant programme managed by CINEA.

It is the first time the European Union has financed an energy infrastructure project involving a non-member country.

The Tunisian section of the project is also supported by the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and KfW.