France’s energy regulator, Commission de Régulation de l’Energie (CRE), has launched a public consultation on the potential increase of interconnection capacity between France and the United Kingdom, in which CRE unveils plans for a new 1 GW interconnection project. The new project worth €1,052m would be developed by Getlink and could be economically profitable on a European scale.
In addition to this new project, three other interconnection projects aiming to link France and the United Kingdom are currently under study: Aquind with a capacity of 2 GW, FAB with a capacity of 1.25 GW and Gridlink with a capacity of 1.25 GW. According to the French power transmission system operator (TSO) RTE, Getlink would be the less risky project, since it would use the Channel tunnel rather than a submarine, would be the smallest in size and costs and would fit in well with the French network.
Currently, three power interconnections are operational between France and the United Kingdom, namely IFA (2 GW), IFA2 (1 GW) and Eleclink (1 GW).