Regulatory Other

On 20 February 2025, Ofgem and the French energy regulator CRE published their first formal joint statement on the opportunity for further electricity interconnection capacity between France and Great Britain, following CRE's spring 2024 public consultation. The statement summarised the regulators' positions: Ofgem had previously granted FAB Link the cap-and-floor regime in principle in 2015 (later retained in November 2022 following an updated needs-case review), granted GridLink the cap-and-floor regime in principle in 2018, and rejected Aquind's application in 2024. CRE's study had found that around 1 GW of new interconnection could be beneficial for France under certain conditions, but only if costs and revenues were redistributed between the two countries rather than shared equally. The regulators committed to continuing detailed discussions on (1) the conditions required to enable c. 1 GW of increased capacity and (2) cost and revenue sharing, with a view to publishing an updated joint statement by the end of October 2025. The signatories were Beatrice Filkin (Ofgem Director, Major Projects) and Emmanuelle Wargon (CRE President).