Home | Connecting the Electrical Supplies of Britain and France

21st February 2019

Connecting the Electrical Supplies of Britain and France

Posted by: Victoria Williams / under:

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Workboats Willendeavour and Willdart were at work over the summer and autumn on a project to connect France and England’s power supplies.

IFA2

IFA2 is a £3bn project to connect the electricity systems of Great Britain and France, with the aim of increasing energy flexibility and lowering prices. 200km of the high voltage DC (HVDC) will run from converter stations in Normandy in France to Hampshire in England.

Making the connection

The 6 export cables will be carried inside 45cm diameter HDPE pipes to allow for a shore landing. The 6 pipes, each 650m long, had to be floated into place, carefully filled, connected to the drilling assembly of the HDD (Horizontal Directional Drilling) Contractor and pulled into the HDD. Boskalis project managed the  marine operations, with Williams Shipping providing Willdart and Wilendeavour to handle the pipe movements.

The timing of each pipe movement was critical to ensure the tides were right. Each section of pipe had to be kept in position and in line with the handover point. Due to the length of the pipe and longshore currents, two workboats were needed to work in sync while it was being attached and pulled. In addition, the waters were very shallow at the connection point, making vessel handling challenging. Crews were flexible ensuring safe and controlled operations.

All 6 sections were successfully installed over the course of 6 weeks, with the final section being completed in September.

In addition, Williams handled the storage of the pipes, securing them off the coast of Hythe and providing frequent checks ( twice a day ).

  • I just wanted to say thank you – it was a very challenging site to work at and make delivery to. Your drivers showed courtesy, patience and professionalism throughout the day

    Philip Kingston,
    Kingston Building Solutions

  • Thank you for your assistance, it was very much appreciated and a special thank you to Bob who did a fantastic job.

    Jenny Wilkinson,
    Interserve Defence Ltd

  • We are very happy with the service provided by your company, especially the driver and we will be using your company for any future work.

    Bob Sarkar,
    National Gritting Service

  • I would like to personally thank you, as a company, and every one of your drivers for their professional approach to the deliveries to our site, all of your drivers have been absolutely fantastic.

    Andy Jenner,
    EP Renewable Energies Limited

  • On Behalf of the Environment Agency and the Residents of Romsey and Winchester, I would like to convey our warmest gratitude for the support you provided during recent flooding. Without you we would not have been able to respond as quickly or effectively as we did.

    James A Humphrys,
    Environment Agency

  • We would like to thank yourself and your team at Williams Shipping for all your help last week, your team were great at getting us around and in position where and when we needed to be in spite of some rotten weather.

    Cliff Stonestreet,
    Fully Fused Fireworks Worldwide Event Management

  • Thank you very much for your assistance and I have to say the two crew members on the vessel could not have been more helpful.

    Steve Beck,
    Burgess Marine

  • May I take this opportunity to thank you for an excellent service, could you also please pass on my thanks to all of your skippers who have helped us over the past few weeks.

    Gwyn Goforth,
    Svitzer UK