National Grid has confirmed that the fire-struck IFA interconnector that rocked the energy market in Sept and was the start of all this volatility will not be fully operational until 2023.

They have confirmed that there is extensive work to be done before it can return to service. The fire-damaged power link is between the UK and France and the fact that it will not be fully restored for another two years shows that we might not see prices settling for a while. The fire forced the shutdown of one of the most important power cables that brings electricity from France to the UK. Following this, a lot of energy experts warned that the loss of 2GW of import to the UK’s grid could spark further energy price rises. And it did.

National Grid have said, “Following a detailed assessment on the 1000MW of capacity that is offline due to damage caused by the fire, we need to carry out extensive work to safely return it to service.”
They will bring 500MW back to service from Oct 2022 to May 2023. Then they will work on bringing the full 2000MW back by Oct 2023.