LONDON: Work to link the UK’s electricity system with the Belgian grid will start later this year, after €500m contracts were awarded to build the interconnector.
Siemens and J-Power Systems, a subsidiary of Japan’s Sumitomo Electric Industries, were announced today as the winning contractors for the NEMO link.
The German engineering giant is set to build convertor stations for the project and J-Power will design, manufacture and install the HVDC XLPE cable system – marking the first time the system will be used operationally anywhere in the world as a High Voltage Direct Current link at 400kV.
NEMO is a joint venture between National Grid and Elia, the Belgium Transmission System Operator, to deliver the 1GW subsea link between the two countries.
The cable will run 140 kilometres and will provide enough electricity to power half a million homes.
The government is keen to invest in interconnectors to help increase energy security and support renewable energy integration. Advocates of interconnectors argue they help reduce the cost of grid decarbonisation by making it easier to sell surplus renewable power or import power during periods when clean energy generation struggles to meet demand.
Earlier this year, the government agreed a €2bn link to Norway, which would make it possible to import enough hydropower to the UK to provide 14 per cent of the electricity used in homes each year.
A 2GW connection to France and another 1GW cable to the Netherlands are already in operation and Ofgem is considering approving plans for two more links to France and another to Denmark that could provide around 3.4GW of capacity.
If design work and site preparation for NEMO begins later this year as planned, National Grid says the link will go into commercial operation in 2019.
