Greece has said it has completed work on an undersea power cable connecting the mainland to the island of Crete, a key step in its ambitious plan for a wider expansion of the grid that will eventually include Cyprus and Israel.

The €1 billion link spanning 330 kilometres was plugged in on Saturday and is expected to be fully operational this summer, Greece’s grid operator said.

The project, for which the European Union provided the bulk of funding through grants and loans, aims to bolster energy diversification after after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Athens hopes to extend the link, dubbed the Great Sea Interconnector, to Cyprus and Israel by the end of the decade.

The project is also a move towards Crete being able to replace fossil fuel-based power generation with renewables, government officials said.

“Crete is becoming a central pillar for the country’s energy transition,” Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou said.

“We’re moving forward with the development of an integrated network of electrical interconnections, strengthening our country as a strategic energy hub in the Eastern Mediterranean.”

However, the wider project has been complicated by financial disagreements and an ongoing maritime dispute with Turkey.

Greece and Egypt also want to establish a separate undersea link on a similar timetable that would bypass the island of Crete and connect directly to the Greek mainland.

The undersea cables to Crete have been laid at a depth of 1,200 metres and will support a capacity of 1,000 megawatts using high-voltage direct current transmission systems.

Supervised by a subsidiary of Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator, the project involved private contractors Siemens Energy of Germany, Greek construction firm TERNA and the Italy-based Prysmian Group cable company, among others.