Undersea cables to increase Britain’s reliance on imported energy

TWO new undersea power cables are to connect Britain to the Continent as the country’s reliance on foreign energy deepens.

The new cables, stretching to the Netherlands and Germany, will expand an import market that cost consumers a record £3.1bn last year after securing support from industry regulator Ofgem.

One of the proposed connectors – called LionLink – would stretch from the UK to Holland and link North Sea wind farms to the British and Dutch grids. The other, Tarchon, would create a second electricity connection between the British and German grids.

Last week, the UK was relying on European neighbours for about 18pc of its electricity. Over the year imports provided around 11pc of UK electricity – with existing undersea interconnectors preventing up to 12 potential blackouts according to National Grid.

Rebecca Barnett, Ofgem director of major projects, said: “Interconnectors can make energy supply cleaner, cheaper and more secure and help harness the vast potential of the North Sea.

“We can sell our excess clean power to Europe, when we generate more than we need, or access power to meet electricity demand in Britain, during times when energy supply here is more limited.”

Interconnectors are subsea high voltage cables that allow power to flow both ways, meaning the UK can export or import power.

Delays in Britain’s nuclear programme and its rollout of wind farms mean the UK will remain dependent on imported electricity for years. The existing connectors include cables linking the UK to the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway, as well as two links to France. Nearly half of last year’s ‘A connected system can make energy supply cleaner, cheaper and more secure’ import costs were paid to France for power generated by state-owned EDF – the company also building the UK’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

A spokesman for National Grid, which owns and operates six of the UK’s nine interconnectors, said the cables had already prevented 12 potential blackouts in 2023.

He said: “When intermittent renewables are not available in one nation, but are in another, power will flow accordingly. For example, we saw the UK exporting to Norway during low rainfall in Norway which impacted their hydroelectric generation.”