The new electricity interconnector planned for Fareham will help the UK in obtaining greater energy security.
The converter station is being proposed by the National Grid, and will be linked via undersea cables to another station in Caen in Normandy. It will be capable of exchanging 1,000 MW of electricity between Britain and France – enough to power over a million homes.
The cable will come ashore at the exiting National Grid site near Chilling, in Warsash, and requires the construction of large buildings on the Daedalus site (in the Gosport constituency) which will be subject to the usual planning processes by Fareham Borough Council. This will mean there will not need to be any large facility at the Warsash site.
Speaking in a debate in the House of Commons on the new Energy Bill:
‘I must mention Fareham and the role it is playing in keeping the lights on. IFA2, an electricity interconnector between France and the UK, is due to be connected at Chilling near Warsash on the south coast in Fareham, with a convertor station at the Daedalus site in Gosport. IFA2 will provide the capability to export or import more than 1,000 MW of power and provides three important benefits, the first of which is in relation to affordability.
‘By giving Great Britain access to the European electricity market, IFA2 will help to create downward pressure on wholesale energy prices. Our wholesale energy price is forecast to be higher than the price in France for many years to come, but it is estimated that, with each 1,000 MW of new interconnector capacity, there is the potential to reduce wholesale prices here by about 2%.
‘Secondly, interconnection will give us access to a wider range of electricity generation sources, increasing our supply from elsewhere, which will only assist our energy security. Lastly, on sustainability, IFA2 will help to manage the fact that not all electricity sources can generate consistently and predictably, and that electricity cannot be stored efficiently on a large scale. IFA2 will help to forge a lower-carbon economy in Great Britain and Europe.’
Further details about the project can be found at:http://www.fareham.gov.uk/planning/ifa2.aspx