By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – The UK’s National Grid has confirmed there has been a fire at the IFA interconnector site in Sellindge, UK. The station is a key site where power arrives in Britain from France.
According to data from the National Grid (LON:NG), flows on the 2,000 megawatt (MW) IFA-1 cable were halted overnight, however, the IFA-2 cable is currently unaffected.
The landing point for the subsea cable linking France to the UK is Folkestone, from where underground cables connect to the Sellindge converter station and then onto GB’s transmission station.
The outage comes amid a time when power prices are continuing to hit new highs in the UK amid global shortages in gas supply, low wind output, and strong demand.
The outage impacted UK natural gas prices as demand for natural gas could continue to soar if there is a prolonged power outage from the fire. UK day-ahead natural gas prices rose by 10% in the wake of the fire.
Latest fire update
Kent Fire and Rescue recently said ten fire engines were at the scene working to stop the fire spreading but expect to be there for “some hours to come”.
Reports have suggested the power cable is to be halted until at least 13th October.