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| Power relations: UK boosts electricity links to France despite Brexit | Power relations: UK boosts electricity links to France despite Brexit |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| As the waves in the Channel roiled and winds gusted at 80mph during Storm Angus last year, managers at the National Grid noticed something they’d never seen before. | |
| Half of the power link between the UK and France, a series of 43-mile-long cables running between Folkestone in Kent to a site near Calais, had suddenly gone down. | |
| The incident seems to have been the unintentional side-effect of an even more dramatic one above the waters, as huge cargo ship Saga Sky collided with a barge carrying rocks. | The incident seems to have been the unintentional side-effect of an even more dramatic one above the waters, as huge cargo ship Saga Sky collided with a barge carrying rocks. |
| Although the four pairs of cables that make up the Interconnexion France Angleterre (IFA) are marked on maps, one of the vessels appears to have urgently dropped anchor as it was tossed around in the storm. | |
| The anchor hit a French pair of cables and then bounced over a British pair before crashing into another French pair, the Guardian understands. Despite being armoured and underneath the seabed, both were damaged and taken offline. | The anchor hit a French pair of cables and then bounced over a British pair before crashing into another French pair, the Guardian understands. Despite being armoured and underneath the seabed, both were damaged and taken offline. |
| Repairs mean that this week the capacity of the IFA has gone from 1GW in the aftermath of Angus to 1.5GW, and should be back to its full 2GW by 15 March. French grid operator RTE said it had borne the £30m to £40m cost of repairs. | |
| “Repair works are ongoing and progressing well on the remaining two cables, despite adverse weather conditions,” a spokesman for National Grid added. Under the contract drawn up when the link was laid in the 1980s, National Grid did not have to contribute to the repairs because only the French cables were affected. | “Repair works are ongoing and progressing well on the remaining two cables, despite adverse weather conditions,” a spokesman for National Grid added. Under the contract drawn up when the link was laid in the 1980s, National Grid did not have to contribute to the repairs because only the French cables were affected. |
| The return to full operation will be a relief to grid operators on both sides of the Channel. The link typically supplies about 5% of the UK’s electricity and brings a degree of flexibility to the energy system that helps keep the lights on and stop power prices shooting up too much. | |
| Most of the time, electricity flows from France to the UK. But for the last three months of 2016, there was the novelty of the UK being a net exporter, as France experienced nuclear outages. | |
| “We are starting to see the benefits of a two-way link, of meeting peak demands when there is insufficient domestic generation available on both sides,” said Steven Moore, chief executive of Eleclink, the Eurotunnel-owned company building a new 1GW link through the Channel tunnel. | “We are starting to see the benefits of a two-way link, of meeting peak demands when there is insufficient domestic generation available on both sides,” said Steven Moore, chief executive of Eleclink, the Eurotunnel-owned company building a new 1GW link through the Channel tunnel. |
| Last Friday, ministers attended the launch of the construction phase of the €580m (£495m) interconnector, scheduled for completion in 2019 and ready for commercial use in 2020, to carry atomic power from France to the UK – and an increasing amount of wind power in the other direction. | |
| “This is a very, very important project for the improved security of both countries’ energy supply when we need it the most. 2020 has always been seen as a potential capacity pinchpoint, when you consider all the coal power stations are due to be closed by 2025, and Hinkley [a new nuclear power station] is not going to be on at the earliest until 2025,” said Moore. | “This is a very, very important project for the improved security of both countries’ energy supply when we need it the most. 2020 has always been seen as a potential capacity pinchpoint, when you consider all the coal power stations are due to be closed by 2025, and Hinkley [a new nuclear power station] is not going to be on at the earliest until 2025,” said Moore. |
| Eleclink is one of several new interconnectors planned to help the UK avoid a shortfall in power capacity. National Grid, which sees them as a growth business, is already blasting through rock in Norway to connect the country’s hydro dams with the UK through a 450-mile-long, 1.4GW capacity cable to the UK. | |
| Despite the threat of changes to the way electricity is traded across borders post-Brexit, the company is considering more connections with Europe as it believes the fundamental case for them will not be affected by the UK leaving the EU. | |
| Another interconnector, linking Scotland’s Aberdeenshire coast and Norway, was last week awarded €10m of EU funding. NorthConnect is a jointly owned by Swedish utility Vattenfall and three Norwegian utilities. | Another interconnector, linking Scotland’s Aberdeenshire coast and Norway, was last week awarded €10m of EU funding. NorthConnect is a jointly owned by Swedish utility Vattenfall and three Norwegian utilities. |