![]() As a result, electricity started flowing out of Britain. Second, multiple French nuclear closures drove up wholesale power prices in France in the second half of the year, relative to its neighbours. First, some 43 days of maintenance outages were already planned in France in 2016. Map shows the existing UK-France interconnector (IFA) and a planned additional cable (IFA2)Īnd things went wrong last year! At least from a UK view. At 2GW, it supplies half Britain’s entire 4GW interconnection with its neighbours. Double-edged swordīut one worry is that when things go wrong, interconnectors can be a double-edged sword, sending electricity the wrong way – ie exporting to a neighbour, when you need it most.īritain’s biggest and oldest interconnector is the IFA sub-sea cable to France. In Britain, with lower historical wholesale power prices than its neighbours, the National Grid estimates that a doubling of interconnection capacity would lead to consumer savings of £1 billion annually as a result of cheaper imports. They can also diversify generation – eg Britain can tap hydropower in Norway, whose supply peak matches UK peak demand in winter. Interconnectors are cross-border cables which can smooth variability in renewables such as wind power, by reaching wider weather systems. That is no more true than in isolated electric grids, such as in Britain, Spain and Italy.īut did huge setbacks and handicaps troubling the UK-France interconnector in 2016 undermine this growing consensus? Recently, there has been rising agreement that new investment in interconnectors is vital to solve the riddle of achieving a secure and affordable low-carbon power supply. Is this a good idea, asks energy finance consultant Gerard Wynn? Wynn, who has just co-written a report on the Electricity Grid Transition in the UK, points out that the UK-France interconnector came under tremendous pressure last year, but in the end proved its usefulness. Prysmian Group was awarded contract to build HVDC ElecLink through the Channel Tunnel (Feb 2007)įew people realise that despite Brexit, the UK is embarking on a large expansion of its electricity interconnections with the European mainland. ![]()
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