MMT has recently completed a geophysical seabed survey and delivered the final report for the proposed 2GW AQUIND Interconnector offshore cable route.
MMT surveyed a corridor between Portsmouth in the UK and the coastal region of Dieppe in France. MMT utilised two vessels: M/V Franklin for offshore works and M/V Seabeam for nearshore works.
Four cables, bundled as two pairs, will be installed along the surveyed route totalling approximately 190km in length. No major obstacles to the cable route were uncovered during the survey.
The survey results will inform Environmental Impact Assessments in both countries and will be further refined during the geotechnical survey campaign. AQUIND and its advisors are keeping all stakeholders in both countries informed of the ongoing activities.
“This is a major milestone in the development of AQUIND Interconnector,” said Kirill Glukhovskoy, managing director, AQUIND.
“We thank MMT for a job well done. The results of the survey will form an integral part of the project’s final design.”
AQUIND and MMT will work on the geotechnical campaign to analyse seabed soil during the summer of 2018.
“Following completion of the geophysical survey we look forward to our continued work with AQUIND to deliver a successful Geotechnical campaign to further characterise the seabed conditions along the cable route,” said Nils Ingvarson , Chief Commercial Officer, MMT.
The interconnector will transmit 16,000,000MWh of electricity each year between the two connected countries, which is 5 percent and 3 percent of the total consumption of Great Britain and France respectively, i.e. consumption by millions of households.
According to AQUIND, by linking the British and French electric power grids, the interconnector will make energy markets more efficient, improve security of supply and enable greater flexibility as power grids evolve to adapt to different sources of renewable energy and changes in demand trends.
AQUIND Interconnector remains on schedule according to the development programme, the developer said.