The 730-kilometre interconnector will join the two countries at Kvilldal in south-west Norway and Blyth in north-east England. The cable will be used to transmit renewable energy between the two countries and can help the countries reach their 2020 targets.
Transmission operators Statnett and National Grid, which are jointly developing the project, have awarded ABB a contract to supply two 525 kilovolt, 1.4GW converter stations, one at each end of the link.
In March, ABB was contracted to supply substations for Statnett's NordLink interconnector project between Norway and Germany.
Prysmian has been awarded a contract to supply 950 kilometres of submarine and onshore cables for the link. The cables will be manufactured at the company's Italian facility in Naples. Prysmian will use its Giulio Verne cable-laying vessel to put the single-core cable in place.
French firm Nexans has been contracted to supply 500 kilometres of cables for the Fjord section of the cable route and the onshore cables in Norway. Nexans has previously been contracted to supply cables to the NordLink project and for a Norway-Denmark interconnector, the company said.
The Norwegian government gave its approval to the link in October 2014. The NSN link is expected to be operational by September 2021.
