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Marking the first steps towards creating a European supergrid, a 260km subsea cable between the UK and the Netherlands has gone live.
Completed on time and within the £500 million budget, the BritNed cable will exchange electricity on a supply and demand basis.
In addition, electricity generated by wind turbines in Europe will be able to connect to the cable, harnessing energy from renewables between countries.
Welcoming the move, energy secretary Chris Huhne said: “This is good news for our energy security, for UK renewables and for consumers. It plugs the UK directly into a wider European electricity market, allowing us to import our peak needs cheaply rather than hold expensive plant in readiness.
“Renewables win as it means surplus wind power can be easily shared. Consumers win as a single European market puts pressure on prices.”
He added that as more cables are deployed by the National Grid, there could be over 10GW of electricity flowing under the North Sea by 2020.
Posted by Mark Stephens
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