HVDC Interconnectors

[Bugtownboy]

3 more with France are planned for another 4.8GW of connections:

2GW AQUIND link landing at Portsmouth (which is mired in local planning controversy)
1.4GW FAB Link landing in Exeter (via Alderney) which was due to start construction this year
1.4GW GridLink, landing in Kingsnorth in Kent which is due to start construction next year.

The AQUIND one is also likely to get mired in sleaze from the Pandora paper expose. All related to revelations about Victor Fedotov and payments to the Tory party.

[dan_b]

Yes I was reading about that, there's definitely some fishy finance behind that one.

Although even if we have 100 interconnectors to France, they'll be no use if France switches them off because of Brexit.

https://news.sky.com/story/france-threa ... w-12426857

[dan_b]

Oh dear. IFA won't return to full 2GW capacity until 2023.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/u-k-s-fire- ... -1.1666586

[nowty]

Oh dear. IFA won't return to full 2GW capacity until 2023.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/u-k-s-fire- ... -1.1666586

Ouch !

[Ken]

North Sea Link (NSL) interconnector has finished commissioning tests and is now offering commercial capacity to the market. NSL connects above the B7 boundary
and when importing to the UK in combination with high wind conditions will add to the
constraint volume

[dan_b]

Looks like the French are raising a lot of stink about the AQUIND Interconnector now too!

"In June last year, Aquind submitted an “occupation rights” application to the mayor of Hautot-sur-Mer for construction and excavation works on the town’s seafront.

It was rejected by the mayor, Jean-Jacques Brument, who says he will never give permission. “Nothing obliges us to cede this plot to them,” Brument told a French newspaper. “They are as stubborn as fools.”
"


https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... er-channel

[ALAN/ALAN D]

3% Going to France today. I thought Mr M was just going to turn it off. He did not say he wants some back.

[Ken]

For the last 3 days the 2 Fr interconnectors have been exporting (UK to Fr) . This must be a reflection of leccy prices in the EU. If there is a shortage of gas then the EU probably wants all the leccy we can spare.

With non flexing nuclear the Fr need us just as much as we need them to take excess wind.

[dan_b]

It often happens in the winter as France relies heavily on electric space heating so their demand increases, and our wind generation really comes on stream with all the blowy wintery weather so we have "excess" cheap wind juice to export.

[Ken]

Yes, its happening again today, exporting 2GW to Fr, but its not cold yet. I still wonder if its tied to gas and even more so if the Belarus/Poland escalates.