Hellenic Cables Wins IPTO’s EUR 1.5bn Corinth-Kos HVDC Contract
Hellenic Cables’ submarine cable plant at Corinth, Greece. The company says the project’s HVDC cables will be manufactured at its facilities in Corinth and Thiva. Photo: Hellenic Cables.
Key Points
- Cenergy Holdings’ cables arm, Hellenic Cables, won a turnkey EPCI contract from Greek grid operator IPTO for the 320 kV Corinth-Kos HVDC interconnection, announced August 13, 2026.
- The award has an approximate value of EUR 1.5 billion and covers end-to-end delivery, converter station to converter station, through Hellenic’s wholly owned subsidiary Fulgor S.A. Signing remains subject to customary statutory conditions and approvals.
- Scope covers about 1,260 km of submarine cable and 30 km of underground cable, carrying 1 GW to link the Dodecanese islands to the mainland grid. Work is expected to start in Q4 2026, with completion scheduled for 2030.
- A turnkey HVDC award of this size going to a supplier outside Prysmian, Nexans and NKT is unusual, and an analyst pressed NKT on it during its Q2 2026 call.
- The win follows Hellenic’s 525 kV cable certification and IPTO frame agreements that lifted Cenergy’s order backlog to a record EUR 3.9 billion at H1 2026.
The Award
Cenergy Holdings said on August 13, 2026 that Hellenic Cables, its cables segment, had been awarded a turnkey contract by the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) for the 320 kV HVDC electrical interconnection between Corinth and the island of Kos. The company put the total value at approximately EUR 1.5 billion.
The award covers engineering, procurement, construction and installation, and it was won through Fulgor S.A., a wholly owned Hellenic subsidiary. Hellenic is responsible for delivery from converter station to converter station and says the HVDC power cables will be manufactured at its facilities in Corinth and Thiva, Greece.
The project runs to roughly 1,260 km of submarine cable and 30 km of underground cable. It is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, with completion scheduled for 2030. Signing remains subject to customary statutory conditions and approvals.
“Projects such as the Corinth-Kos interconnection demonstrate the increasing importance of advanced HVDC technology in developing resilient networks and supporting the energy transition.”
— Alexios Alexiou, CEO, Cenergy Holdings
A Turnkey Win Outside the Big Three
Turnkey HVDC contracts at this scale have overwhelmingly gone to three European specialists: Prysmian, Nexans and NKT. Their reported transmission backlogs dwarf the rest of the field, and grid operators have tended to route the largest, most technically demanding subsea links through that short list on track record alone.
The Corinth-Kos award is an exception to that pattern. IPTO awarded the turnkey EPCI contract to Hellenic Cables through Fulgor, with responsibility for end-to-end delivery from converter station to converter station. For Hellenic, an award valued at approximately EUR 1.5 billion materially increases both its commercial exposure and execution demands.
HVDC order books at the incumbents stretch years out, and grid operators facing multi-year queues have reason to qualify additional suppliers. Hellenic’s move into the 525 kV class, certified earlier in 2026, put it on the shortlist for work that a 320 kV specialist could not previously bid.
Turnkey EPCI
The release defines the scope as engineering, procurement, construction and installation, and says Hellenic is responsible for end-to-end delivery from converter station to converter station. The remit therefore extends beyond manufacturing the cables, though the announcement does not give a package-by-package breakdown of the work.
The interconnection itself is strategic for Greece. It carries 1 GW of transmission and connects the Dodecanese islands to the mainland system, which allows the gradual retirement of costly, carbon-intensive oil-fired stations while improving security of supply on the islands.
Cenergy and Hellenic Cables
Cenergy Holdings is a Belgian holding company listed on Euronext Brussels and Euronext Athens. It owns two industrial businesses: Hellenic Cables, one of Europe’s larger power, telecom and submarine cable makers, and Corinth Pipeworks, a steel pipe producer for the energy sector.
Hellenic owns two Greek submarine-cable plants, at Corinth and Thiva, and won Corinth-Kos through its wholly owned subsidiary Fulgor. The award lands on top of a run of IPTO work: frame agreements for interconnections in the Aegean lifted Cenergy’s order backlog to a record EUR 3.9 billion at the half-year, and management has been explicit about where the value sits.
“HVDC, subsea transmissions, these are the most attractive profit pool for cables, not only for Hellenic Cables, but also for the other cable operators.”
— Ioannis Papachristou, CFO, Cenergy Holdings, H1 2026 earnings call
For the listed peer set competing for this kind of work, see our guide to power cable companies for the energy transition, and Cenergy’s entry in the wider grid hardware stocks universe.
Industry Reaction
The award came up on NKT’s Q2 2026 earnings call the following day. DNB Carnegie analyst Lars Topholm asked management whether Hellenic’s win, paired with its fresh 525 kV certification, changes the competitive landscape, or whether transmission operators will keep selecting the established names on track record.
NKT chief executive Claes Westerlind acknowledged the entry but played down its effect on the market.
“I think you can read into it that it’s not unexpected… you should read into our confidence about our own abilities to secure orders and our own ability to compete effectively. I think these two things, both in combination, makes us comfortable that this will not, to a major extent, change the supply-demand balance as far as NKT is concerned.”
— Claes Westerlind, CEO, NKT, Q2 2026 earnings call
NKT’s response indicates that it does not expect Hellenic’s entry to materially change its own supply-demand balance. The award nevertheless adds another supplier to a market where incumbent order books already extend for years.
| Cable maker | Reported transmission backlog | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Prysmian | Around EUR 17 billion contracted | Q1 2026 |
| NKT | EUR 13.5 billion (Transmission) | Q1 2026 |
| Nexans | EUR 7.9 billion (Power Transmission) | Q1 2026 |
| Cenergy / Hellenic Cables | EUR 3.9 billion group backlog | H1 2026 |
These figures are not directly comparable: they mix Prysmian’s contracted backlog, the transmission-segment backlogs reported by NKT and Nexans, and Cenergy’s group-level backlog. Even so, Cenergy sits well below the three incumbents, which is why a turnkey award of this size is notable for the company.
Contract Conditions and Execution
Contract signing remains subject to customary statutory conditions and approvals, so it is conditional rather than complete at the announcement date.
Execution will test Hellenic’s installation and project-management capability across approximately 1,260 km of submarine cable. The company expects work to begin in Q4 2026 and schedules completion for 2030. Future updates should clarify how Corinth and Thiva capacity will support this project alongside Hellenic’s other IPTO work.
Further large HVDC awards would show whether Corinth-Kos represents a repeatable expansion of Hellenic’s addressable market.