Power sharing: building the world's longest subsea electricity interconnector

It’s perhaps surprising, given the increasingly divisive nature of the Brexit conundrum. But at a time when all we seem hear about is the severing of political ties to Europe, the UK is becoming ever more closely connected to the European mainland via an ambitious series of underwater power cables linking its energy network with the grids of its nearest continental neighbors.

Across Europe, these so-called interconnectors, which enable countries to trade and transfer electricity across borders, are viewed as an increasingly important way of boosting security of supply; stabilising prices; managing fluctuations in supply and demand; and driving the uptake of low-carbon technologies by helping to provide a solution to intermittency issues.

There are already almost 4,000 MW of interconnectors joining the UK to France, the Netherlands, and the Republic of Ireland, and with a pipeline of approximately 12,000MW of projects proposed or under construction by 2025, they form a major element of the UK National Grid’s strategy for the future.