The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has announced that it will resume the application license processing for the development of the 1.4 GW NorthConnect interconnection project between Norway and the United Kingdom, after the processing was put on hold in 2020. The NorthConnect link is a subsea, 650 km, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power interconnection project that would link Peterhead in Scotland (UK) to Simadalen in southern Norway. The project is developed by NorthConnect Limited, a joint venture between the Scandinavian companies Lyse, Agder Energi, Hafslund E-Co and Vattenfall.
In March 2020, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy had informed NorthConnect that there was no sufficient basis for making a decision in the case of the NorthConnect link and the license processing was put on hold. With the restart of the project, the ministry has sent a letter to NorthConnect and requested that any new information or other input that may be relevant for processing the case be sent by the end of February 2023.