National Grid announces commercial operations of Viking Link
The world’s longest land and subsea interconnector started commercial operations on 29th December 2023.
Image source: National Grid
UK, London: The world’s longest land and subsea interconnector started commercial operations on 29th December 2023.
National Grid’s Viking Link electricity interconnector became operational and is transporting power between the UK and Denmark. The link has a capacity of 1.4 GW and stretches for 475 miles under land and sea to join Bicker Fen substation in Lincolnshire with Revsing substation in southern Jutland, Denmark.
The £1.7 billion project is a joint venture between National Grid and Danish System Operator Energinet, and has the capacity to transport enough electricity for up to 2.5 million UK homes, bringing over £500 million of cumulative savings for UK consumers over the next decade.
Construction on National Grid’s sixth interconnector started in 2019, with more than four million working hours spent to get to this point. It is expected to bring huge benefits for UK consumers including cheaper, lower carbon power and increased energy security as the UK can call on additional power from Denmark when needed. It will be operating at a capacity of 800 MW before increasing up over time to 1.4 GW. In its first year of operation, it is expected to save approximately 600,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
There is a converter station on each end of the cable where the power is transformed into the correct frequency before being transported onto transmission systems. Principal Contractor Siemens Energy built the converter station in the UK while Energinet built the Danish one. Siemens Energy have designed, installed and commissioned the electrical assets on both sides. The HVDC offshore cable was manufactured and laid by Prysmian Group.
The UK land cable was made up of 118 sections stretching for 67 km between Bicker Fen and Sutton-on-Sea where the subsea cable begins. It was connected to the UK’s National Transmission Network by National Grid Electricity Transmission at the Bicker Fen substation.
Earlier in 2023, National Grid announced joint plans with TenneT for a new 1.8 GW interconnector between the UK and The Netherlands, called LionLink, which would join the two countries and connect to offshore wind generation. It would be the second link between the two countries and is expected to be operational in the early 2030s.
Source: National Grid