HVDC Norway–UK
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The North Sea Link is a 1,400MW
high-voltage direct current A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating current (AC) transmission systems. Most HVDC links use voltages betwe ...
submarine power cable A submarine power cable is a transmission cable for carrying electric power below the surface of the water.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, connecting separate AC networks, or linking synchronous grids. It may be formed of submarine power ...
in the world when it became operational on 1 October 2021.


Route

The cable runs from Kvilldal,
Suldal Suldal is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in the northeast corner of Rogaland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Ryfylke. Since 1965, the administrative centre of ...
, in Norway, to
Cambois Cambois ( ) is a village in south-east Northumberland, England. It is situated on the north side of the estuary of the River Blyth between Blyth and Ashington on the North Sea coast. Etymology According to earlier scholarship, the etymon of ...
near Blyth in England. The converter station is located near to the cable landfall in East Sleekburn and is connected to the National Grid at the Blyth substation.


Technical description

The cable is long, and has a capacity of 1,400MW. The estimated cost of the project was €2billion, and it became operational in 2021, as planned.


Project participants

It is a joint project of the
transmission system operator File:Electricity grid simple- North America.svg, 380px, Simplified diagram of AC electricity grid from generation stations to consumers in North America rect 2 243 235 438 Power station rect 276 317 412 556 Transformer rect 412 121 781 400 Elect ...
s
Statnett Statnett is a Norwegian state-owned enterprise responsible for owning, operating and constructing the stem power grid in Norway. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway. Statnett also owns 30% of the Nord Pool Spot along with other No ...
and National Grid. The offshore cable was supplied by
Prysmian Prysmian S.p.A. is a multinational company with headquarters in Milan, Italy, specialising in the production of electrical cable for use in the energy and telecom sectors and for optical fibres. Prysmian is present in Europe with 48 plants, 23 ...
and manufactured at the Arco Felice factory in Naples, Italy. It was installed by the cable-laying vessel ''Giulio Verne''. Cable for the fjord, tunnel and lake sections, and the onshore connection in Norway, was supplied by
Nexans Nexans S.A. is a global company in the cable and optical fibre industry headquartered in Paris, France. The group is active in four main business areas: buildings and territories (construction, local infrastructure, smart cities / grids, e-mobi ...
and manufactured at Nexans' plant in Halden, Norway. It was laid by using the Capjet trenching system and the cable-laying vessel ''Skagerrak''. The HVDC converter stations were built and installed by the
ABB Group ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Exch ...
.


Project history

The project was first proposed in 2003, when Statnett and National Grid planned a 1,200MW interconnector between
Suldal Suldal is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in the northeast corner of Rogaland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Ryfylke. Since 1965, the administrative centre of ...
in Norway and Easington,
County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...
, in the United Kingdom. This project was suspended. In October 2009, Statnett and National Grid announced they were conducting a feasibility study of the cable. According to the pre-feasibility study the project would be economically and technologically feasible. It would be a commercial cable jointly owned by Statnett and National Grid NSN Link, a subsidiary of National Grid. In 2010, there was speculation that the interconnection may also connect the North Sea
wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...
s as well as offshore
oil and gas platform An oil platform (also called an oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, etc.) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms wi ...
s, becoming the backbone of the proposed
North Sea Offshore Grid The North Seas Energy Cooperation (NSEC), officially the Political Declaration on energy cooperation between the North Seas Countries, is a collaboration between EU member-states and Norway to create an integrated offshore energy grid which links ...
. In 2014, National Grid quoted various groups in favour of more interconnections. The route survey of the offshore section was conducted by MMT in 2012. In March 2015, Statnett and National Grid announced a decision to start the construction phase, a month after
Nemo link Nemo Link is a 1,000 MW HVDC submarine power cable between Richborough Energy Park in Kent, the United Kingdom and Zeebrugge, Belgium. The project is a joint venture between British National Grid and Belgian Elia. The 400 kV electrical interc ...
, a similar connection between the United Kingdom and Belgium, was announced. Along with
Viking Link Viking Link is a 1,400 megawatt, MW high-voltage direct current, HVDC submarine power cable between the United Kingdom and Denmark, which was completed in 2023. , it is the longest land and subsea HVDC interconnector in the world. The project is ...
from Denmark, they would increase the UK's electricity interconnection level (transmission capacity relative to production capacity) from the 6% it was in 2014.COM/2015/082 final: "Achieving the 10% electricity interconnection target
TextPDF
pp.2–5. ''
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
'', 25 February 2015
ArchiveMirror
/ref> Construction of the UK on-shore cable between the landfall at Bucca headland and the converter station site at East Sleekburn was completed in February 2020, with the converter station under construction. The cable crossed the
Norwegian trench The Norwegian trench or Norwegian channel (; ; ) is an elongated depression in the sea floor off the southern coast of Norway. It reaches from the Stad peninsula in Sogn og Fjordane in the northwest to the Oslofjord in the southeast. The trench ...
. A tunnel was drilled from the fjord through the mountain to the lake
Suldalsvatnet Suldalsvatnet () is the sixth-deepest lake in Norway. The deep lake lies in the municipality of Suldal in Rogaland county, Norway. The lake is the headwaters of the river Suldalslågen and it sits at an elevation of above sea level. The l ...
, and the cable was floated across the lake to the Kvilldal connection point. , the converter station in Suldal had been connected to the grid.


Operation

On 8 June 2021, it was announced that construction had been completed, and after a period of testing the interconnector became operational on 1 October 2021. Initially the link operated at a maximum of 700MW, half its capacity, and then increased to a gigawatt. A flaw in the English converter temporarily restricted power until the full 1,400MW could be achieved. The interconnector was switched from monopole to bipole operation in January 2022. 1,300 MW was achieved in April 2023, and full 1,400MW operated by June 2023. While the main direction is from Norway to England, the cable is only fully utilized occasionally.


Economic effect

After being fully operational, the North Sea Link gives the UK access to the south Norway bidding area () of
Nord Pool Spot Nord Pool AS is a pan-European power exchange. Nord Pool has its main office in Oslo and further offices in Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn and London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, lar ...
via the cable's own auction function. It has an annual transmission capacity of 12.3TWh. According to analysis by the United Kingdom market regulator
Ofgem The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) is the government regulator for the electricity and downstream natural gas markets in Great Britain. It was formed by the merger of the Office of Electricity Regulation (OFFER) and Office of G ...
, in the base case scenario the cable would contribute around £490million to the welfare of the United Kingdom and around £330million to the welfare of Norway. In this analysis, over the 25-year cap and floor regime (a regulation for how much money a developer can earn once the interconnector is in operation) the benefit to United Kingdom consumers is expected to be around £3.5billion under the base case scenario. This could reduce the average domestic consumer bill in the United Kingdom by around £2 per year. According to Auke Lont, CEO of Statnett, Norway can use the interconnector to import electricity at times of peak supply in the United Kingdom, allowing a temporary reduction in hydroelectric output in Norway and a corresponding increase at peak Norwegian demand times. When England has negative pricing, Norway imports near the maximum 1.4 GW. In 2014, the Norwegian energy service provider Markedskraft analysed the impact of two interconnectors under construction from Norway: the North Sea Link and
NorGer NorGer was one of two planned electricity cables between Germany and Norway. The other proposed project was NordLink, which Statnett decided to proceed with in 2015, and NorGer was cancelled. Description NorGer interconnector will start in Tonst ...
, a submarine cable of identical capacity connecting Norway with Germany. The electricity will at any moment flow towards the country with the highest price and these price differentials generate income for the interconnector whether the electricity flows one way or the other. Markedskraft estimated that while the Norwegian import and export via NorGer will zero out in 2020, the annual net export to the UK via North Sea Link is projected to be about 10TWh, i.e. almost all of the interconnector's annual capacity. Markedskraft go on to estimate that the increased demand for Norwegian electricity via North Sea Link will increase the price of electricity in Norway by 25
NOK Nok is a village in Jaba, Nigeria, Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site. Archaeology The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, ...
/MWh (ca. 2.6 €/MWh). A 2016 study expects the two cables to increase price in South Norway by 2øre/kWh, less than other factors. Statnett said in March 2022 that the very high European gas prices were the main factor of the large increase in electricity prices in Southern Norway in late 2021. The two new cables NSL and NordLink, were responsible for €5―15/MWh, or 10% of the increase for the entire year. Statnett predicted more hours with imports of zero price electricity, as the rest of Europe gets more solar and wind power, and this happens sometimes, allowing South Norway to act as a "battery" and transit area between shifting high and low price areas in Europe. June 2023 was the first time the cable "bought" power in Norway at negative prices.


See also

*
List of high-voltage transmission links in the United Kingdom The following is a list of high-voltage transmission links in the United Kingdom, including some under construction or proposed. The rise of UK interconnection The main direction of interconnector flows is into the UK electricity market. Duri ...
* List of high-voltage transmission links in Norway *
Icelink Icelink is a proposed electricity interconnector between Iceland and the United Kingdom via Great Britain. At , the 8001,200MW high-voltage direct current (HVDC) link would be the longest sub-sea power interconnector in the world. The project pa ...
*
NorthConnect The NorthConnect (also known as Scotland–Norway interconnector) was a proposed 1,400MW HVDC interconnector over the floor of the North Sea. Interconnection It would have been the first HVDC route to connect Scotland's electricity network di ...
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NeuConnect NeuConnect is a high-voltage direct current submarine power cable under construction since 2023 between the Isle of Grain, England and Wilhelmshaven Germany, expected to operate in 2028. It will be the first interconnector between the UK and ...


References


External links

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Page on 4c
{{Energy in the United Kingdom, sources Electrical interconnectors to and from Great Britain Electrical interconnectors to and from the Nordic grid HVDC transmission lines Electrical interconnectors in the North Sea Norway–United Kingdom relations 2021 establishments in Europe