Major Outage

IFA2 was taken out of service in November 2023 following a suspected subsea cable fault, removing approximately 1,000 MW of cross-Channel transfer capability between Great Britain and France for over three months. Reporting on 21 November 2023, the New Power industry newsletter confirmed the interconnector was on an unplanned outage expected to last until 1 February 2024 as a result of the cable fault; subsequent National Grid statements quoted in regional reporting extended the projected restoration to 23:00 on 21 February 2024. The outage affected the full bipole link between the Daedalus / Chilling converter complex in Hampshire and the Tourbe converter / substation in Normandy. Repair operations were undertaken by Prysmian, the original cable supplier and installer; once the cable was repaired the marine asset entered a guard phase to protect the repair site while permanent cable-protection licences were obtained. The outage removed a material trading route during the winter peak and required GB and FR system operators to lean more heavily on remaining links and domestic flexibility. No formal root-cause statement on what caused the cable damage has been published, with National Grid characterising it as a "suspected cable fault" pending investigation.