MONITA (Italy–Montenegro)

On 15 November 2019 the presidents of two countries, Sergio Mattarella of Italy and Milo Đukanović of Montenegro, switched on a cable that runs 423 km along the bed of the Adriatic. At its deepest the cable lies 1,215 metres down. Balkan Green Energy News described it as the first electrical bridge between the European Union and the Balkans.

The Italian end is at Cepagatti in the province of Pescara, where 16 km of underground cable take the power from the coast inland. On the Montenegrin side a 6 km underground section climbs from the shore to Lastva, in the municipality of Kotor. Terna, the Italian grid operator, put the investment at €1.1 billion. Montenegro’s operator CGES holds a 20% share, and part of the capacity belongs to a private company, Monita Interconnector.

Why Montenegro? It offered a landing point in the Western Balkans. Terna’s chief executive at the time, Luigi Ferraris, called the link “an impetus for an increasingly efficient and sustainable integrated electricity market”. The idea was that Montenegro would act as a hub, drawing renewable investment and passing power on to its neighbours.

The link is only half built. The first 600 MW pole is in service; the second cable, which would bring it to the originally planned 1,200 MW, has not been laid. In October 2025 the two countries signed a memorandum on coupling their electricity markets, and Montenegro’s energy minister said the second cable should be installed by 2031, as Balkan Green Energy News reported. No construction contract for it had been reported.

For a comparison with other long Mediterranean cables, see SAPEI and the guide to subsea power cables. MONITA’s 423 km of seabed make it one of the longest subsea runs on the Italian network.