Read More; IFA2 Go-Live. A spokesperson for National Grids electricity system operator (ESO) said Britain would have sufficient electricity supplies on Wednesday despite the incident. Day-ahead British power prices jumped almost 19% on the news, nearing record highs hit this week exacerbated by low wind supply and soaring gas prices. [2] The 204-kilometre (127 mi) high voltage DC (HVDC) cable operates at +/-320kV with the capacity to transmit 1,000 MW of power. The IFA2 interconnector, a second link between Britain and France commissioned in 2020, is operating and not affected. With margins tight anyway for this winter, as exposed by National Grid ESOs early winter outlook publication this year, it puts the GB market in a risky position for the winter and especially if we suffer from periods of low wind and cold temperatures. "We are completely focused on getting. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Arc-faults can be caused by things as innocent as putting a nail in the wall to hang a picture or plugging in an appliance with a defective electrical cord. Britain's National Grid said on Wednesday there has been a fire at its IFA1 interconnector site in Sellindge in Kent and it has been evacuated. We will provide a further update in due course. National Grid confirmed it will bring 500MW back to service from . The landside parts of the link consist of 8cables with lengths of 18.5km (11.5 miles) in England, and 6.35km (3.95 miles) in France.[8]. The IFA2 interconnector, a second link between Britain and France commissioned in 2020, is operating and not affected. Sign up to the E&T News e-mail to get great stories like this delivered to your inbox every day. In recent months, the soaring cost of natural gas and a warm, dry and windless start to autumn 2021 caused record prices on the market. Fire damage at the National Grid's Interconnexion France-Angleterre (IFA) site at Sellindge in Kent. Over 30 years experience in delivering secure, sustainable and affordable energy. To give you the best experience, we ask that you enable cookies. [12], In September 2021, a major fire at the Sellindge converter station led to the shutdown of the link. A fire at National Grid's IFA1 interconnector site in Sellindge is to see power prices once again spike in the UK as 1GW of capacity drops off the system. Gas and electricity prices surged yesterday, with month-ahead gas prices hitting all-time highs, after National Grid confirmed that the blaze at a site in Kent had caused the closure of the IFA . Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. National Grid has four operational interconnectors two to France (IFA and IFA2), one to the Netherlands (BritNed) and one to Belgium (Nemo Link). Smart navigation app uses 3D sound to guide blind people. In the long run, we will lose 2GW of import to the GB markets whilst we are struggling at the moment with low margins. Today the tight market will be affected. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. On the other side, France has now got a net extra 2GW of available supply so this should help prices on the continent.. We have extended the outage on the other 1000MW, which was offline due to a planned outage, until 25 September. 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"Our investigation is ongoing and we will update the market with any changes as necessary," a National Grid spokesperson said via email. "We are in discussions with the UK electricity system operator (ESO) and our European partners to ensure we optimise upcoming planned pre-winter outages of our other interconnectors to support UK security of supply," it said. We currently have a sufficient buffer of spare capacity to operate the electricity system securely over this evenings peak demand period, he said in an email. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. As of 2005[update], imports of electricity from France have historically accounted for about 5% of electricity available in the UK. We have been able to reduce the outage time of 1000MW of capacity at the IFA interconnector so that it will come back to service on 20th October, ahead of the 23rd October date we had previously published. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo. Following record high power prices earlier this week, a fire at the IFA1 interconnector in Kent could cause power prices to rise further. A fire in September 2021 caused the link to be removed from service. We will keep you updated on any major changes and if you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact us. Indeed, by 1984 the circuit was disconnected from the Main Transmission System. Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. "We are also in the process of commissioning North Sea Link, our latest interconnector to Norway, to provide additional capacity next month - ahead of the winter period," the grid added. It will then be able to undertake further work to bring the full 2,000MW back by October 2023. Please see the latest REMIT message here that details the Outage, please see the Outage Profile showing the phased return of capacity in line with the table above. AFCIs are designed to detect arcing electrical faults within your electrical system that may otherwise go unnoticed, until they potentially result in a fire. It was completed in 1986, and replaced the first cross-Channel link which was a 160MW link completed in 1961 and decommissioned in 1984. "The outage is going to lift the potential for price volatility as long as its offline. and of course demand will get higher as we move further into winter, said Glenn Rickson, head of European power analysis at S&P Global Platts Analytics. National Grid recently erected the worlds first T-pylon, which is shorter than traditional high-voltage pylons and has a smaller footprint on the ground. We are on-site assessing the damage and investigating the cause of the fire. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. A fire at National Grid's IFA power interconnector site in Sellindge has caused the site to be evacuated while emergency services deal with the incident, the UK transmission system operator said Sept. 15. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. Following a detailed assessment on the 1000MW of capacity that is offline due to damage caused by a fire at our site in Sellindge in September, we need to carry out extensive work to safely return it to service. A fire occurred in the early hours of Wednesday 15th September 2021 at our UK Sellindge site resulting in the cables capacity being reduced to 0MW. Lost capacity will compound UKs energy woes while extensive work is carried out on French connection. All Rights Reserved. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. Book your FREE ticket to the Big Zero Show 2023 now. Imports through the interconnector have generally been around the highest possible level, given the capacity of the link. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Which countries in the EU are buying the most electric cars? BritNed and Nemo Link interconnectors are also operating at full capacity, the grid said. We have notified the market via REMIT that we expect our IFA interconnector to return to full service on 16 December 2022 - 10 months ahead of our previous estimate. Finland will allow transgender people to change their legal gender at their own request and without undergoing sterilisation, new legislation signed by the Finnish President confirmed on Friday. Which countries have embraced a 4-day workweek and hows it going. Critics say it's not enough. Cory, B.J., Adamson, C., Ainsworth, J.D., Freris, L.L., Funke, B., Harris, L.A., Sykes, J.H.M., High-voltage direct current converters and systems, Macdonald & Co. (publishers) Ltd, 1965, p175218. The impact is expected to plunge hundreds of thousands of homes into fuel poverty for the first time and has already forced a slowdown at factories to manage eye-watering energy costs. It forced the shutdown of one of the most important power cables, which brings electricity from France to the UK. The IFA1 interconnector is expected to be offline until Oct. 13, Elexon data shows. There has been a fire at our IFA interconnector site in Sellindgeand emergency services are in attendance. Our IFA2 interconnector is operating as normal at full capacity. According to local media reports, the IFA1 interconnector is expected to be offline until 13 October. It added: Our investigation is ongoing and we will update the market with any changes as necessary.. The fire at the IFA site essentially means the loss of 2 gigawatts (GW) of interconnection capacity between the UK and France which further tightens the supply situation in the UK, said Roy Manuell, EU power and carbon analyst at ICIS Energy. One of Britains most important electricity import cables will not return to full service for another two years after a fire forced it to shut, compounding the UKs energy woes ahead of a looming winter crunch. tim petrovic career earnings ifa interconnector fire cause. The current 2,000MW link is bi-directional and the countries can import or export depending upon market demands, mostly depending upon weather conditions and availability of renewable energy on the British Isles, and French surplus of nuclear generation or demand for electric heating. This was eventually decommissioned in 1984 and replaced by a second link capable of carrying 2GW in 1986. Capacity Rights Reduced By Approximately: When will I see my revised capacity rights on JAO? In common with the 1961 scheme, there is no provision to permit neutral current to flow through the sea. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Another cable linking the two electricity systems, IFA-2, was also completed earlier this year, although yesterdays incident will not have any impact on it, the National Grid added. We are completely focused on getting IFA safely returned to service as soon as possible and we are in discussions with the UK ESO and our European partners to ensure we optimise upcoming planned pre-winter outages of our other interconnectors to support UK security of supply. Energy Live News Ltd National Grid said the fire prompted the evacuation of its IFA1 interconnector site in Sellindge in Kent. Curtailment is Pro Rata and therefore where curtailment is required, customers capacity will be reduced in line with the curtailment required. A fire occurred in the early hours of Wednesday 15th September 2021 atour UK Sellindge site resulting in the cables capacity being redu Read More. Finland will allow transgender people to change their legal gender at their own request and without undergoing sterilisation, new legislation signed by the Finnish President confirmed on Friday. This scheme was equipped with mercury-arc valves, each having four anodes in parallel.[5]. The other 1 GW capacity of the IFA1 link is currently offline due to planned maintenance which will be extended until Sept. 25, the spokesperson said. (Reuters) - Britain's National Grid on Monday said a planned outage of 1000 MW of capacity at IFA interconnector in Sellindge in Kent has been extended until Oct. 23. 15.99MW would result in 15 MWs after the curtailment). We will bring 500MW back to service from October 2022 through to May 2023.. The cable was built by ABB. The operators annual winter outlook report said the UK had enough capacity to avoid blackouts affecting households and factories but tight supplies were likely to keep market prices at near record levels throughout the winter. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. 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Interconnexion France-Angleterre (IFA) is a joint venture between the French Transmission Operator RTE and National Grid, operating the subsea electricity link between Great Britain and France, commissioned in 1986. The outage comes at a time when UK baseload power prices are at record highs due to soaring gas prices, high. Wholesale electricity prices have soared after a fire at an interconnector linking the French and British power networks, the National Grid has reported. Enabling cookies permits us to gather information about which categories and articles are the most interesting to our readers. A National Grid spokesman said it expects to continue supplying electricity safely and securely despite the incident. The equipment occasionally faults, causing capacity to drop: in a bad year, this might happen several times. We have notified the market that 1000MW is unavailable until 13 October as a result. Wednesday's almost 19% price jump took British day-ahead electricity prices to 475.00 pounds per megawatt hour (MWh), close to a record high of 540 pounds MWh hit this week. Following the incident, it was forced to notify the wholesale electricity market that 1000MW would be unavailable until 27 March 2022 as a result. IFA2, National Grids second electricity interconnector linking the UK and France, is now able to flow low carbon electricity between the two countries at full capacity. Initially these were air-cooled and used analogue control systems, and in 2011 and 2012 respectively, the thyristor valves of Bipole 1 and Bipole 2 were replaced by modern water-cooled thyristor valves and digital control systems supplied by Alstom. The IFA1 interconnector is expected to be offline until Oct. 13, Elexon data shows. The site has been evacuated and the safety of our staff, emergency teams and local residents is our highest priority. In 2006, 97.5% of the energy transfers were made from France to UK, supplying the equivalent of 3million English homes. Data from energy market analyst EnAppSys shows that in the year to date, overall average power prices have been more than double the average price in 2019-2020 and in the last two weeks daily average prices have been eight times the average in 2019. [10], In November 2016, during Storm Angus, a ship dragging an anchor cut four of the eight cable components, reducing capacity by 50%. National Grid said it has to carry out extensive work before it returns to service. read more. Cables are laid in pairs in four trenches so that the magnetic fields generated by the two conductors are largely cancelled. Lab leak theory: 3 years on, will we ever know where COVID came from? link, Last edited on 27 November 2022, at 00:36, "Interconnector customer portal | National Grid Group", "Kent's burnt-out electricity cable will take two more years to get back to full service", "HVDC Submarine Power Cables in the World", "How a Loose Anchor Cut Up Britain's Power Link With France", "Batteries act as first responders when UK-France interconnector trips", "National Grid site fire shuts down power cable between France and UK", "Fire shuts one of UK's most important power cables in midst of supply crunch", "Fire-damaged power link will be out for six months, says National Grid", "The UK's Energy Price Surge Could be Just Getting Started", http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/tna/+/http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file11257.pdf/, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HVDC_Cross-Channel&oldid=1124032410, This page was last edited on 27 November 2022, at 00:36. Tomorrow a forecast tight market will become really tight; expect even higher prices in the spot markets going forward. IFA is currently at 0MW and here is a table detailing the capacity over the next 6 months in accordance with REMIT: Is the planned October outage still going ahead? The shutdown came at a time of high prices and supply shortage in the UK electricity market, caused by low wind speeds and high prices for natural gas. We are completely focused on getting IFA safely returned to service as soon as possible and ensuring we are able to support security of supply, the company said in a statement. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. National Grid said late on Wednesday the fire would mean 1 GW, or half of capacity, would remain offline until 27 March 2022. All maintenance activities will be incorporated into return to service program. We have extended the outage on the other 1000MW, which was offline due to a planned outage, until 25 September. The planned October outage has been dismissed. Prior to the 2021 fire, the link availability was around 98%, which was among the best rates in the world. Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. Thankfully no one was injured and the emergency services got the fire under . We wish to update you on the major incident that occurred at IFA yesterday. The shock shutdown of the subsea cable sparked concern among industry experts over Britains energy supplies during record high market prices across Europe. The remaining 1000MW is unavailable until 27 March 2022 and our investigation into the fire at our site in Sellindge is ongoing. Customers who hold LT capacity rights can view there post curtailment allocation rights at D-2 on the JAO Platform. A fire at a critical nodal point in the electrical grid has shut down a major cable transporting electricity from France, under the English Channel and to the UK. The site has been evacuated and the safety of our staff, emergency teams and local residents is our highest priority. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. A key substation at Kent was left damaged by a fire. We are completely focused on getting IFA safely returned to service as soon as possible and we are in discussions with the UK ESO and our European partners to ensure we optimise upcoming planned pre-winter outages of our other interconnectors to support UK security of supply. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. The IFA Interconnector that meets the UK in Sellindge can carry about 2GW between the two countries but the National Grid said a fire has forced a complete evacuation of the site. In order to keep the disturbances of the magnetic compasses of passing ships as small as possible, a bipolar cable was used. On Wednesday, National Grid said the fire would mean 1 gigawatts, or half of capacity, would remain offline until 27 March 2022. read more. In accordance with the IFA Access Rules capacity will be rounded down (e.g. LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - A fire halted a power link between France and Britain on Wednesday, squeezing tight UK electricity supply further and sending prices to near record highs. ifa interconnector fire cause. According to local media reports, the IFA1 interconnector is expected to be offline until 13 October. The cable is also known as IFA,[1][2] and should not be confused with the new IFA-2, another interconnect with France that is three times as long but only half as powerful. Thankfully no one was injured and the emergency services got the fire under control and extinguished .The overall damage the fire caused is still be evaluated and we wish to take this opportunity to update you on how this has impacted on customers who currently hold LT capacity rights. Our interconnectors deliver secure and affordable electricity and play a critical role in tomorrows cleaner and smarter energy systems. National Grid said: Following a detailed assessment on the 1,000MW of capacity that is offline due to damage caused by a fire at our site in Sellindge in September, we need to carry out extensive work to safely return it to service. Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, Ipswich and Ilchester. In accordance with the IFA Access Rules (Part 3 Long Term Allocation Rules, Chapter 9 Curtailment P135) capacity will be curtailed in line with capacity available. A major fire impacted the GB side of the interconnector, with 12 fire engines on-site to deal with the blaze. National Grid, which owns the 2,000 megawatt cable, expects half of its capacity to return to service on Wednesday but said extensive work would be needed to bring the power link back to full service. [1/2]Migrating starlings fly at dusk past electricity pylons silhouetted by the sunset of a clear autumn evening in the Kent countryside, in Graveney, Britain, October 26, 2015. Earlier this week, the GMB Union called for a new generation of nuclear power plants in order the help UK meet its 2050 net-zero carbon emissions pledge. National Grid has four operational interconnectors - two to France (IFA and IFA2), one to the Netherlands (BritNed) and one to Belgium (Nemo Link). We are also in the process of commissioning North Sea Link, our latest interconnector to Norway, to provide additional capacity next month - ahead of the winter period. The HVDC Cross-Channel (French: Interconnexion France Angleterre IFA 2000) is the 73 km long high-voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnector that operates since 1986 under the English Channel between the continental European grid at Bonningues-ls-Calais and the British electricity grid at Sellindge. 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