Linklaters has advised the Sumitomo Electric Group on a €2bn EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract with the German transmission system operator Amprion for the German power corridor project DC35.
EPC stands for Engineering, Procurement and Construction: as part of the energy infrastructure project, high-voltage direct current cables with a voltage of 525 kilovolts will be manufactured by Sumitomo subsidiary Südkabel in Mannheim and laid along a route of approximately 530 km.
The DC35 project is part of the “Rhine-Main Link” transmission corridor and is intended to transport energy from offshore wind farms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea, as well as from onshore wind farms in northern Germany, to the load centres in the Rhine-Main region. The project is scheduled for completion in 2032.
“We are pleased to support Sumitomo Electric on another key component of Germany’s power grid expansion. High-capacity transmission corridors are essential to efficiently transport large volumes of renewable energy over long distances to demand centres,”
said Thomas Schulz, German Head of Energy at Linklaters.
The Linklaters team is led by Thomas Schulz (Partner) and Markus Alexander Gerz (Associate, both Energy/M&A, Berlin).
The market-leading energy team regularly advises the Sumitomo Electric Group, most recently in 2024 on the V49 cable project, a c. 300 km 525 kilovolt underground cable connection from Wilhelmshaven to Hamm (North Rhine-Westphalia), designed to transport large volumes of wind energy to industrial consumption centres.
