Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, today announced the latest stages for the scheme which could pave the way for construction to start later this year.

The ElecLink project will see around 70km of high voltage power lines carrying 1,000 megawatts threaded through the maintenance tunnel.

The project will also involve designing and building two AC/DC converter stations at Folkestone and Coquelles in France.

It is being funded by Eurotunnel and Star Capital Partners and is understood to be estimated to cost around £350m.

National Grid and its French equivalent RTE already operate a subsea 2,000MW high-voltage direct current link that lands at Baker’s Gap, near Folkestone.