The new electricity 800MW Viking Link connection between Denmark and England is to be commissioned on 29 December 2023, developer Energinet has said.
The full capacity of 1400MW cannot be offered to the electricity market from the start, because the West Jutland high-voltage grid has not yet been developed sufficiently, it added.
The existing electricity grid risks overloading and consumers a supply failure if Viking Link was given a complete freedom from day one, according to the developer.
Energinet said it is working hard on market and operational measures, which can continuously increase the possibility of even more import and export of power across the North Sea.
When Viking Link was adopted in 2015, it happened at the same time as it was decided to expand the 400kV high-voltage grid in West Jutland from Idomlund by Holstebro in the north to the Danish-German border in the south.
The projects were mutually dependent, Energinet said.
But subsequently, the expansion of 400kV connections along the West Coast has run into several delays, i.a. due to stricter requirements for environmental approvals.
Therefore, the spades on the new 400kV connections have only just been put in the ground, and therefore they are not finished at the same time that Viking Link can be put into operation.
Klaus Winther, director of system responsibility at Energinet, said: “Because the reinforcements of the high-voltage network in West Jutland are delayed, we have always known that it was a challenge to offer the full capacity of Viking Link to the electricity market from day one, but possible with a number of mitigating measures.
“The existing West Jutland electricity grid is simply not strong enough for all the power that, for example, Danish electricity producers want to send through Viking Link and sell in England, to reach the new connection.”
If the capacity was given completely free, in addition to the risk of overload and threatened security of supply, it would also mean that large amounts of Danish electricity production from wind turbines in particular would have to be stopped for periods, because the electricity could easily be sold to England, but not come through the West Jutland grids on the way over there.
Winther added: “I am aware that electricity producers in particular would have liked to see that we could open for more exports than 800MW from the start, but unfortunately we cannot do that without risking putting the Danes’ security of supply out of control.
“With 800MW released to the electricity market, we are actually pushing the existing electricity grid in West Jutland more than we usually do and are getting closer to the limit of what we can squeeze out of the electricity grid without overloading it – precisely to ensure that as much as possible is available capacity in Viking Link.”
Energinet is working hard on both market and operational measures, which will continuously increase the capacity of Viking Link further.
Expansion of the 400 kV network along the west coast of Jutland will greatly increase the capacity of the western Danish high-voltage network and thus enable full capacity in Viking Link.
The first part of the West Coast connections from the German border to Endrup is scheduled to be put into operation in the first quarter of 2025.