The British private project developer Aquind and the French transmission system operator RTE jointly referred the 220-km long Aquind interconnection project to the French National Commission for Public Debate (Commission nationale du débat public or CNDP). A concertation will be organized shortly and will make it possible to gather views of stakeholders on the project before the project moves forward.
The Aquind project is a subsea High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) 2 GW electric power transmission line between the South Coast of England (Lovedean, near Portsmouth) and Le Havre (Normandy, France) which is expected to transmit 16 TWh/year of electricity. The electrical interconnection will entail a subsea cable of approximately 180 km, comprising four DC cables of 320 kV. The total estimated cost of the project is €1.4bn. The operator expects to start construction in 2019 for a commissioning date scheduled in 2023. In September 2016, Aquind has been granted an interconnection license from the British energy regulator Ofgem to develop the project.