Public Consultation on a Common Template for HVDC Project Tenders

Overview

ENTSO-E invites industry stakeholders to provide feedback on a draft common template for HVDC project tenders covering the full lifecycle of point-to-point HVDC projects.

General disclaimer

Participation in the consultation is voluntary, open and non-discriminatory, and the consultation is intended solely to gather technical and practical input on the draft template. It does not seek, request or facilitate the exchange of commercially sensitive information, including prices, costs, margins, bidding strategies, capacity, customer allocation, future commercial conduct or project-specific tender intentions.

Consultation Overview

Objective of the Consultation

ENTSO-E has established a dedicated project group to develop a common specification template for HVDC projects in cooperation with transmission system operators (TSOs) and industry stakeholders. The work is conducted in compliance with applicable EU and national competition-law rules and public-procurement principles.

The objective of this initiative is to:

• streamline communication between TSOs and suppliers,
• accelerate procurement and tendering processes,
• improve comparability across HVDC projects,
• reduce resources needed to analyse tender specifications,
• support more efficient and future-ready grid development across Europe.

The initiative currently focuses on point-to-point HVDC projects. The common template is intended as a non-binding reference structure. It does not prescribe procurement outcomes, preferred suppliers, commercial terms, prices, technical solutions, technologies, brands, interfaces, asset-level parameters or award criteria for individual projects. TSOs remain individually responsible for defining their own project requirements and conducting their own procurement procedures in accordance with applicable law.

Context

This work contributes to the broader European effort to accelerate electricity grid development and industrial cooperation.

The initiative is aligned with the priorities identified in the joint roadmap:

Joint Roadmap Towards Future-Proof Grids

In particular, the roadmap highlights the need for increased harmonisation, improved procurement efficiency, and stronger collaboration between TSOs and manufacturers to support Europe’s energy transition and grid expansion ambitions. Such collaboration will be limited to legitimate standardisation, template-structure and process-efficiency topics and will not involve coordination of suppliers’ or TSOs’ individual commercial conduct, tender strategies, prices, output, capacity, market allocation or participation in specific procurement procedures.

What Has Been Developed

The ENTSO-E project group has prepared:

• a harmonised draft structure for HVDC project tenders,
• draft descriptions for the individual tender topics,
• a proposed common approach covering the full lifecycle of HVDC procurement.

The draft template currently covers 18 overarching topics:

1. Instructions to Tenderers
2. Contractual & Commercial
3. Scope of Work
4. Interface
5. Management Systems
6. Responsible Business Practices
7. Documentation
8. Digital Collaboration
9. Training
10. Studies & Models
11. Physical Assets
12. AC Connection
13. HVDC System
14. Electrical Equipment
15. Maintenance Phase
16. Tests & Commissioning
17. Future Readiness
18. Appendices

The structure is intended to improve consistency across projects without prescribing project-specific technical solutions or asset-level parameters. It is not intended to exclude equivalent solutions, restrict technological development, favour particular suppliers or reduce independent competition between tenderers.

Scope of the Consultation

ENTSO-E is seeking feedback from:

• HVDC system manufacturers,
• engineering and technology providers,
• TSOs,
• industry associations,
• and other interested stakeholders.

Feedback is particularly welcome on:

• the proposed structure of the template,
• completeness of the topics,
• usability for tender preparation and evaluation,
• opportunities for simplification and harmonisation,
• practical implementation considerations.

At this stage, feedback should focus primarily on high-level structure, topic selection, and key principles rather than the exact wording. Stakeholders should not include commercially sensitive, confidential or competitively strategic information in their submissions. In particular, submissions should not include information on prices, costs, margins, capacity, production plans, tender strategies, customer or market allocation, current or future bids, or project-specific negotiations.

Consultation Material

The consultation package includes draft template documents shared in widely used Microsoft Office formats to facilitate comments and track changes. Documents are provided for consultation purposes only and do not constitute a mandatory standard, procurement requirement, technical specification or endorsed market practice.

How to Provide Feedback

Stakeholders are invited to:

1. download the consultation material,
2. review the proposed structure and topic descriptions,
3. submit feedback through the consultation platform.

Feedback should be limited to comments necessary for the purposes of this consultation. ENTSO-E may disregard, redact or remove information that appears to be commercially sensitive, confidential, unrelated to the consultation scope, or otherwise inappropriate from a competition-law perspective. Stakeholders remain responsible for ensuring that their submissions comply with applicable competition-law obligations.

Consultation Timeline

• Consultation launch: 03 June 2026
• Deadline for feedback submission:  10 August 2026
• Publication of consultation summary and next steps: Q3 2026

Any published consultation summary will be prepared in an aggregated and non-confidential manner and will not disclose commercially sensitive information attributable to individual stakeholders.