Licensed to connect to Denmark and France

It is likely to connect Bicker Fen, southwest of Boston, Lincolnshire in the UK, to Revsing in Denmark.  Bicker Fen was in the News recently over residents opposition to RWE's plans to build a substation in the area to connect Triton Knoll Offshore windfarm to the grid.  Currently RWE are going through a period of consultation with statutory bodies, landowners and communities on the electrical system.

The Interconnector strengthens RWE's case in many respects, and if both projects (Triton Knoll and Viking Link) proceed to completion will make Bicker Fen a power hub bringing up to 2GW of Electricity to the region.  The interconnector is planned for October 2020 to go live.

The other licence authorises National Grid IFA 2 Limited to operate its interconnector between France and the UK (IFA2).  This is a joint venture between National Grid plc, and Frances counterpart  Réseau de Transport d'Electricité (RTE), the French Transmission System Operator. The UK landing point for the sub-sea cables is near Folkestone, Kent, from where underground cables connect to Sellindge converter station and then on to the GB transmission system. The French landing point for the sub-sea cables is near Calais, from where underground cables connect to Les Mandarins converter station and then on to the French transmission system.
The interconnector is approximately 70km in length with 45km of subsea cable.

IFA2 is being developed as a 1000MW HVDC link. In France, it will connect to the transmission system at the Tourbe 400kV sub-station in North Normandy, some 28km inland. In England, it will connect to the transmission system at a 400kV substation at Chilling Lane (cable sealing-end compound for the Fawley-Chilling cables) in Hampshire. The submarine route has already been surveyed and is around 207km in length, so altogether the onshore & offshore cable route will be nearly 240km long.

Image - courtesy National Grid