Stretching 80 miles from Bruges on the Belgian coast to Richborough in Kent, Nemo Link is a joint venture between the UK’s National Grid and the Belgian electricity transmission system operator, Elia.
Operating smoothly, the subsea cable has been available to import or export power more than 96 percent of the time in the last 12 months, starting from January 31, 2019. Nemo Link has performed “exceptionally well” and its resilience is due to its “advanced technology,” said Elia’s director of infrastructure, Markus Berger.
In fact, the 1 GW power link is the first subsea HVDC project in the world to use cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) technology. Manufactured by Power Systems, part of Sumitomo Electric Industries, the new cable system has been used for the first time at DC 400 kV for Nemo Link.
Near ‘real time’ power trading
Electricity traders can choose from a variety of products to move electricity back and forth between the two countries across the English Channel. Capacity can be bought closer to real time through hourly nomination gates. This “closer to real time service” enables traders to respond quickly to sudden changes in supply and demand, thereby reducing the potential for spikes in power prices.
“By enabling the market to react immediately to rapid changes in supply and demand, Nemo helps to better balance an energy system that is more reliant on intermittent wind and solar energy;” explained Jon Butterworth, President of National Grid Ventures. “In the coming years, interconnectors like Nemo will play an increasingly important role,” he forecast with reference to the TSO’s aim to “share renewable energy resources across borders” to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
For National Grid, Nemo Link is the third interconnector to Europe next to the IFA link to France and BritNed to the Netherlands. Three further projects are under construction to France, notably IFA2 due operational 2020, the North Sea Link to Norway due operational 2021, and the Viking Link to Denmark due onstream in 2023.
By 2030, some 90 percent of electricity imported via National Grid’s interconnectors is meant to originate be from zero carbon sources.