Information
How long is the BritNed cable?
There are 2 cables bundled together with approximately 250km of submarine cable and 10km of onshore cable. For more information see BritNed Basics.
What is a convertor station?
A converter station converts electricity between Alternating Current (AC) and Direct Current (DC). AC is used for the transmission systems in Great Britain and The Netherlands, while DC is used for the interconnector. For more information see BritNed Basics.
Where are the BritNed convertor stations?
The convertor station in GB is located at the Isle of Grain in Kent. The convertor station in NL is located at Maasvlakte in Rotterdam. For more information see BritNed Basics.
When was BritNed built?
Construction of the convertor stations and the laying of the submarine cables took place between May 2008 and December 2010.
When did BritNed go-live?
Following the completion of construction in December 2010, there were a few months of compliance testing and BritNed became operational on 01 April 2011.
How much did it cost to build BritNed?
The construction cost for BritNed was approximately €600 million.
What is an interconnector?
An interconnector is a connection between the electricity transmission systems of different countries and provides the opportunity to trade electricity between countries.
In the case of BritNed, this is between Great Britain and The Netherlands. For more information see BritNed Basics.
Do you offer site tours?
We organise site tours at our Isle of Grain convertor station for our Participants when the situation allows it but we don’t offer tours to the general public.
Outages
When are the maintenance periods or planned outages for BritNed?
BritNed typically takes two planned outages each year for maintenance, the planned outage periods can be found on our Auction Schedules page, or the ENTSO-E Transparency Platform and Nord Pool UMM.
