The governments of France, Portugal and Spain have agreed to build the 370-km long Bay of Biscay ("Golfe de Gascogne") undersea power interconnection project, which will connect the French and Spanish power grids. The European Commission (EC) will grant €578m for the project under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding programme. This investment is the largest CEF amount ever awarded to an energy infrastructure project so far.
Bay of Biscay was granted the Project of Common Interest (PCI) status by the European Commission in 2013 and 2015. The 320 to 500 kV line project will link Gatica (Spain) to Cubnezais (France). Once built in 2026, it will almost double the interconnection capacity between Spain and France from 2.8 GW to 5 GW and will help the Iberian peninsula out of its energy isolation, bringing the two countries closer to the 15% interconnection target contained in the new regulation on the governance of the Energy Union.