IFA-2 (Interconnexion France-Angleterre 2) is a subsea electrical

interconnector An interconnector (also known as a DC tie in the USA) is a structure which enables high voltage DC electricity to flow between electrical grids. An electrical interconnector allows electricity to flow between separate AC networks, or to link sy ...

, running beneath the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

between France and the United Kingdom. The high voltage DC (HVDC) cable operates at +/-320kV with the capacity to transmit 1,000 MW of power. IFA-2 is the second interconnector built between France and Great Britain, after IFA (

HVDC Cross-Channel 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- ...

) link.

Route

The cable connects to the French grid at the Tourbe 400kV substation. From there, a high voltage alternating current (HVAC) underground cable runs to the converter station nearby. A long underground HVDC cable runs from the converter station to the landfall point east of

Merville-Franceville-Plage Merville-Franceville-Plage () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. Geography Merville-Franceville-Plage, more usually called Franceville, is situated on the Côte Fleurie, 6 km from Cabou ...

, near

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

. On the British side, the landfall point is located at Monks Hill Beach, at the southern end of Solent Airfield, near

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. The converter station is located to the north east of Solent Airfield. From there, a long HVAC cable runs underwater to the point of connection to the grid at Chilling 400kV substation, near

Warsash Warsash is a village in southern Hampshire, England, situated at the mouth of the River Hamble, west of the area known as Locks Heath. Boating plays an important part in the village's economy, and the village has a sailing club. It is also home ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

Project history

The project was developed by IFA2 SAS, a joint venture between the UK's National Grid and RTE of France. In 2015, the European Commission identified IFA-2 as one of key energy infrastructure projects. In 2017, contract for IFA-2 was awarded to the

Prysmian Group Prysmian S.p.A. is an Italian company with headquarters in Milan, specialising in the production of electrical cable for use in the energy and telecom sectors and for optical fibres. Prysmian is present in North America with 23 plants, 48 in Eur ...

and ABB.

In October 2019, the project completed the external construction of the UK convertor building. Cable laying works in the eastern

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay to ...

took place at the end of 2019. The cable was energised for the first time on 15 Oct 2020, in preparation for testing before going live. It was placed into live operation on 22 January 2021 with an opening flow from France to the UK. The connector tripped in the morning of January 29, causing a loss of 900MW, and grid batteries compensated some of the loss to keep frequency drop at 0.25Hz.

References

{{Reflist

External links

IFA2 Interconnector

RTE website

IFA-2 Corporate website

Non-technical summary (pdf)

Copy of information boards displayed in 2017 (pdf)
Electrical interconnectors to and from Great Britain Electrical interconnectors to and from the Synchronous Grid of Continental Europe Proposed electric power transmission systems Proposed electric power infrastructure in England Proposed electric power infrastructure in France HVDC transmission lines France–United Kingdom relations Energy infrastructure completed in 2021 2021 establishments in France 2021 establishments in England

Route

Project history

See also

References

External links