National Grid in £900m undersea project to connect UK electricity to the Continent
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Your support makes all the difference.National Grid is planning to lay three sub-sea power cables costing £900m to link the UK electricity market with the rest of Europe. Planning is still at an early stage, but National Grid executives are expected to rubber-stamp the first project this summer.
This would link the UK with Norway via a 700km cable under the North Sea. National Grid has already signed a development agreement with Norway's nationalised distribution company, Statnett, to build the 1,000mw cable in a joint venture, at a cost of £400m.
Some 98 per cent of Norway's power comes from hydroelectric sources. The UK is reliant on thermal sources – coal, gas, oil and nuclear. As a result the two countries have very different patterns of electricity supply: the UK has "spikes" during the day, whereas in Norway electricity is in shorter supply during the night, when water sources are depleted.
This presents an opportunity to import and export electricity between the countries. Chris Spencer, director of National Grid's Interconnectors Business, said: "The project will help to displace the peaks in the UK system and will also improve security of supply and electricity reserves."
National Grid is also in talks with the Dutch transmission company TenneT, about a similar project, expected to cost £250m.
Like the UK, the country relies on thermal electricity sources, but the one-hour time difference between the UK and the Netherlands presents an opportunity to import and export electricity at peak times. Typically, demand is greatest between 8am and 5pm.
Finally, National Grid is in talks with Ireland's ESB about laying a cable between Wales and the Republic. Costing £250m, the project would help to supply Ireland's increasing thirst for electricity as a result of its growing economy.
National Grid hopes to lease the capacity on the cables to electricity generators and energy traders on 15-year contracts.
The schemes are part of a strategy by National Grid to exploit its assets. The company has raised £2.5bn from the creation of telecoms company Energis. After gradually selling its shares, National Grid is left with around a third stake in the now troubled company, which it hopes to sell in the medium term.
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