Large fire shuts down IFA

Sep 17, 2021

Misc

Posted by Patrick Haddad

A large fire at a converter station has caused the shutdown of the IFA (Interconnexion France-Angleterre), a key power cable that imports electricity from France.

The fire broke out at the converter station in Sellindge, Kent, where underground cables connect to the converter station and then onto the GB transmission system.

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.
— National Grid UK (@nationalgriduk) September 15, 2021

Following an initial review, the IFA remains offline while 1000MW will be unavailable until 27 March 2022. The outage on the other 1000MW, which was offline due to a planned outage, has been extended until 25 September.

The IFA2 interconnector continues to operate as normal at full capacity.

National Grid reported that the fire has been put out without any injuries to staff.

Source: National Grid

Photo (for illustrative purposes): Umspannwerk / Frauke Feind / Pixabay / Free for commercial use