Due to the pandemic, the UK-Netherlands submarine cable maintenance schedule has been postponed to September

In view of the severity of the current Covid-19 pandemic, the maintenance plan for the 1GW BritNed submarine power interconnection system scheduled for mid-May has been cancelled
.

According to the original plan, the system operator will shut down the system for maintenance
from May 11 to 15.
Capacity in the current phase will be provided
through relevant daily implicit auctions.

The project operator explained: "We are confident that the cancellation of planned power outage maintenance will not adversely
affect the availability of the system.
”

Planned maintenance work will be postponed until 21-25 September 2020
.
This coincides
with the maintenance schedule of the 2GW IFA grid interconnection system between the UK and France.

The UK over-the-counter (OTC) baseload traded at £26.
10/MWh in May, while the Dutch OTC contract traded around £20.
44/MWh in the afternoon, suggesting that electricity will flow to the UK
next month.
At press time, there was no trading
for the September OTC baseload contracts in the UK or the Netherlands.

In the delivery period from April 1 to 18, the UK's day-ahead base load was set at £25.
75/MWh, around £8.
96/MWh
higher than the equivalent Dutch market.
The UK has been a net importer of electricity to the Netherlands this month, averaging 680 MW, up from an average of 620 MW
in the previous quarter.

It is understood that the UK-France IFA grid interconnection system with a capacity of up to 2GW will be limited to 1GW availability from September 21 to October 16 for planned maintenance
.

National Grid said maintenance work at the IFA had been reduced from 12 days this month to two days following a review of planned work and had helped improve the availability
of the grid.

All other grid interconnection systems in the UK (around 2GW) are scheduled to reach full capacity in
September, according to the latest grid plan.