The Isle of Man to England Interconnector is a submarine power cable connecting the transmission system of the Manx Utilities Authority to that of Great Britain. With an undersea section of approximately , it is the second-longest AC undersea cable in the world.
Route
It was laid in 1999 between Bispham, Blackpool, England, and Douglas Head on the Isle of Man, commencing commercial operations in November 2000. It is capable of continuous operation of 40MW at 90kV (although other sources say 65MW at 132kV AC)
Structure
The cable was manufactured in two parts: one section at the former BICC works in Erith and the other at Pirelli Cables in Southampton. It ended the Isle of Man's dependence on local diesel-powered generation.
The electricity cable is bundled with a fibre-optic cable which is used for telecommunications. The cable is owned by e-llan Communications, which is part of Manx Utilities. The electricity cable is used for importing and exporting electricity between the Isle of Man and the GB National Grid.
The cable is mostly buried at around depth but is on the seabed surface at six locations with protective cable mattresses.
The amount of electricity sold to the UK since 201415 and the revenue gained each year was as follows:
{| class="wikitable"
|Year
|201415
|201516
|201617
|201718
|201819
|201920
|202021
|-
|Electricity to the UK, GWh
|93
|87
|105
|95
|131
|192
|168
|-
|Revenue from sales to UK
|£1.8M
|£3.2M
|£4.6M
|£3.2M
|£3.4M
|£4.3M
|£3.8M
|}
See also
- Western HVDC Link between Scotland and Wales
- HVDC Moyle between Scotland and Northern Ireland
- East–West Interconnector between Wales and the Republic of Ireland
- Manx Utilities Authority