Kwarteng rejects examining authority advice and refuses UK-France power cable
Angus Walker Partner
The energy minister has refused to grant a Development Consent Order for a UK-France power cable on the grounds that an alternative site for the substation connecting it to the grid had not been ‘adequately explored’.
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng refused the application for the proposed AQUIND electricity inter-connector between France and the UK against the examining authority’s recommendation.
The application was for development consent for a ‘linear 2,000 MW bi-directional sub-sea inter-connector’ from the boundary of the UK ‘Exclusive Economic Zone’ (EEZ) in the English Channel to Lovedean in Hampshire, via a landfall at Eastney on Portsea Island, Portsmouth, together with a connection to an existing substation and associated infrastructure. The parts of the development beyond the EEZ are subject to French planning consents.
Angus Walker, Partner in our infrastructure planning team, comments on this development in an article for Planning Magazine.
The full article is available, here.
