IFA-2

IFA-2 (Interconnexion France-Angleterre 2) is a subsea electrical interconnector, running beneath the English Channel between France and the United Kingdom. The 204 km high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable operates at +/-320kV with the capacity to transmit 1,000 MW of power. IFA-2 is the second interconnector built between France and Great Britain, after IFA (HVDC Cross-Channel) link.

Route
The cable connects to the French grid at the Tourbe 400kV substation. From there, a 300 m long high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) underground cable runs to the converter station nearby. A 24 km long underground HVDC cable runs from the converter station to the landfall point east of Merville-Franceville-Plage, near Caen in Normandy.

On the British side, the landfall point is located at Monks Hill Beach, at the southern end of Solent Airfield, near Portsmouth. The converter station is located to the north east of Solent Airfield. From there, a 2 km long HVAC cable runs underwater to the point of connection to the grid at Chilling 400kV substation, near Warsash, Hampshire.

Project history
The project was developed by IFA2 SAS, a joint venture between the UK's National Grid and RTE of France.

In 2015, the European Commission identified IFA-2 as one of key energy infrastructure projects.

In 2017, contract for IFA-2 was awarded to the Prysmian Group and ABB.

In October 2019, the project completed the external construction of the UK convertor building. Cable laying works in the eastern Solent took place at the end of 2019.

The cable was energised for the first time on 15 October 2020, in preparation for testing before going live. It was placed into live operation on 22 January 2021 with an opening flow from France to the UK. The connector tripped in the morning of January 29, causing a loss of 900MW, and grid batteries compensated some of the loss to keep frequency drop at 0.25Hz.