The date for the return of full capacity to the interconnector, knocked out by a blaze last month, has been pushed back to late in 2023.
A fire-damaged power link between the UK and France will not be fully restored for another two years, National Grid has revealed.
Part of the electricity interconnector at Sellindge in Kent was damaged by the blaze in September and the grid had aimed to restore it by next March. But in an update published on Thursday night, it said “extensive work” was needed in order to return it safely to service.
National Grid said it would bring half of the affected 1000MW of capacity at the IFA link back from October 2022 through to May 2023.
Further work will then be undertaken to restore full capacity by October 2023. National Grid said: “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.”
National Grid said that it had been able to reduce that outage time slightly, meaning that it will come back to service on 20 October rather than 23 October. In addition to the fire a planned outage has been taking place at the IFA link covering a further 1000MW capacity.
