IFA incident - September 2021
10th November 2021, 17.30 GMT
We have notified the market via REMIT that we expect our IFA interconnector to return to full service on 16 December 2022 - 10 months ahead of our previous estimate.
The IFA interconnector has two Bipoles, each with a capacity of 1,000MW. 1000MW (Bipole 2) has been operating since last month.
We expect the full 2000MW of IFA capacity to be available for Winter 22/23. In addition, we will no longer need to take Bipole 1 out of service from May 2023 to October 2023, as communicated in our previous REMIT notification.
Our priority has been to ensure we safely maximise IFA capacity to support Winter security of supply.
Please visit the BMRS website for the latest market updates via the REMIT report.
14th October 2021, 21:50 GMT
We have been able to reduce the outage time of 1000MW of capacity at the IFA interconnector so that it will come back to service on 20th October, ahead of the 23rd October date we had previously published.
Following a detailed assessment on the 1000MW of capacity that is offline due to damage caused by a fire at our site in Sellindge in September, we need to carry out extensive work to safely return it to service. We will bring 500MW back to service from October 2022 through to May 2023. This will result in 1500MW of available capacity going into next Winter. We will then undertake further work in order to bring the full 2000MW back by October 2023.
We are completely focused on getting IFA safely returned to service as soon as possible and ensuring we are able to support security of supply.
Please visit the BMRS website for the latest market updates via the REMIT report.
20th September 2021, 18:15pm GMT
The planned outage of 1000MW of capacity at the IFA interconnector has been extended until 23 October.
The remaining 1000MW is unavailable until 27 March 2022 and our investigation into the fire at our site in Sellindge is ongoing. We are completely focused on getting IFA safely returned to service as soon as possible and we are in discussions with the UK ESO and our European partners to ensure we optimise upcoming planned pre-winter outages of our other interconnectors to support UK security of supply.
Please visit the BMRS website for the latest market updates via the REMIT report
16th September 2021, 13:15 GMT
We can confirm the fire has been put out and Kent Fire & Rescue Service has left the IFA converter station site at 9.05 this morning. We are on-site assessing the damage and investigating the cause of the fire.
We are completely focused on getting IFA safely returned to service as soon as possible and we are in discussions with the UK ESO and our European partners to ensure we optimise upcoming planned pre-winter outages of our other interconnectors to support UK security of supply.
Our IFA2, BritNed and Nemo Link interconnectors are operating at full capacity. We are also in the process of commissioning North Sea Link, our latest interconnector to Norway, to provide additional capacity next month - ahead of the winter period.
15th September 2021, 16:30 GMT
The IFA interconnector is currently out of service following a fire at our site in Sellindge. Following an initial review, we have updated the market that 1000MW is unavailable until 27 March 2022. We have extended the outage on the other 1000MW, which was offline due to a planned outage, until 25 September. Our investigation is ongoing and we will update the market with any changes as necessary.
Our IFA2 interconnector continues to operate as normal at full capacity.
Please visit the BMRS website for the latest market updates via the REMIT report
15th September 2021, 11:25am GMT
The IFA interconnector is currently out of service following a fire at our site in Sellindge. We have notified the market that 1000MW is unavailable until 13 October as a result. This is in addition to the 1000MW that is unavailable until Friday 17 September due to a planned outage. Our IFA2 interconnector is operating as normal at full capacity.
Please visit the BMRS website for the latest market updates via the REMIT report
15th September 2021, 07:50am GMT
There has been a fire at our IFA interconnector site in Sellindge and emergency services are in attendance. The site has been evacuated and the safety of our staff, emergency teams and local residents is our highest priority. We will provide a further update in due course.