The NorthConnect (also known as Scotland–Norway interconnector) was a proposed 1,400MW HVDC interconnector over the floor of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

Interconnection

It would have been the first HVDC route to connect Scotland's electricity network directly to that of

mainland Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by so ...

(though there are existing connections from England to mainland Europe), whereas Norway already has interconnectors to

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Project partners

The £1.75billion project was promoted by NorthConnect, a Norwegian company specially set up by five electricity companies (

Agder Energi Agder is a county () and traditional region in the southern part of Norway and is coextensive with the Southern Norway region. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the ...

, E-CO, Lyse,

SSE plc SSE plc (formerly Scottish and Southern Energy plc) is a multinational energy company headquartered in Perth, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. SSE operates in the United Kingdom a ...

and

Vattenfall Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational corporation, multinational electrical power industry, power company owned by the List of government enterprises of Sweden, Swedish state. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germa ...

) to advance the scheme. It was hoped that the connector will assist the growth of the Norwegian and Scottish renewable energy industries.

Route

The Scottish landfall would have been at

Peterhead Peterhead (; , ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is the council area's largest settlement, with a population of 19,060 at the 2022 Census for Scotland, 2022 Census. It is the largest fishing port in the United Kingdom for total landi ...

in Aberdeenshire, where the connector will join the National Grid. The Norwegian landfall will be Simadalen at the head of the Hardangerfjord in Norway, at the Sima Kraftwerk hydroelectric plant.

Specification

The HVDC cable was proposed to be approximately long, and have a capacity of 1,400MW. It was expected to cost €1.7billion.

Project history

On 5 March 2013, it was announced that SSE has left the project. The Norwegian government ruled that only Statnett could own export cables. In 2016, Norway debates rules for export cables. In June 2016,

Ofgem The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) is the government regulator for the electricity and downstream natural gas markets in Great Britain. It was formed by the merger of the Office of Electricity Regulation (OFFER) and Office of G ...

approved NorthConnect. Other approvals were still needed. The European Union put NorthConnect on the "Projects of Common Interest" list and supported its development with €10million. A 2019 analysis by the Norwegian water department indicates that the connection would be economically viable despite an increase of less than half a eurocent per kWh for Norwegian consumers. By 2019, the project had received all the most important marine and planning consents in the UK. Following detailed design work, it was hoped that the link will be constructed between 2019 and 2022. The consortium hoped to make a final investment decision in 2020. On 25 March 2020, NorthConnect received a letter from the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, informing them that NorthConnect's license applications would not be processed at the present time. At the end of 2021, the Norwegian finance minister stated that there was no intention to process the application. In March 2023, the Norwegian government rejected the project's license application.

References

External links

Official website
of NorthConnect {{Sustainable development in Scotland Electrical interconnectors to and from Great Britain 2020 in Europe Kristiansand Proposed electric power transmission systems Norway–Scotland relations Proposed electric power infrastructure in Norway Proposed electric power infrastructure in Scotland