Interconnection France-Angleterre, otherwise known as IFA1, is a 2GW subsea link between Britain and France jointly owned by National Grid and the RTE – the French transmission system operator. In September 2021, there was a serious fire at the converter station on Sellindge in Kent. Omnia Projects were engaged by National Grid to provide project services including Project Manager, Planning Support, Project Supervision and Senior Authorised Persons (SAP’s).
After the devastating fire, our team supported National Grid in returning the interconnector at half capacity (1GW) within the first month. A huge project then began to re-build parts of the converter station, then install and commissioning the HVDC equipment and supporting systems. This included working 24/7 shift patterns which allowed IFA1 to be returned to fully capacity on the 27th January 2023. A new converter station would typically take around five years to construct and commission, whereas the IFA1 re-build was completed in 16-months.
A huge achievement from National Grid, the Omnia Team and the other supply chain partners.