Plans to build electricity link between Scotland and NI

Plans have been announced to build a new electricity link between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The company behind the scheme, Transmission Investment, has applied for an electricity transmission licence.

That is one of the first regulatory hurdles the project must pass.

An existing 500 megawatt interconnector between Scotland and Northern Ireland has been operated by Mutual Energy since 2001.

Transmisson Investment said its project, known as LirlC, aims to provide up to 700MW of further capacity between the Irish Single Electricity Market and the Great Britain wholesale electricity market.

If that was delivered it would represent over 40% of the winter peak demand in Northern Ireland.

LirIC project director Keith Morrison said: "The application for a transmission licence is an early milestone in a long process but it's significant in that it moves us one stage closer towards delivering this very exciting project."

The plans comprise two convertor stations, one in Northern Ireland and another in Scotland, and a cable length of around 130km (80 miles) linking the two, depending on the final route.

The company said potential routes and locations were being studied in detail.

It said the scheme represents a potential investment of about £700m.

Interconnecters are seen as an important part of efforts to decarbonise electricity as they increase the capacity to match supply and demand from intermittent power sources like wind.

Martin Doherty of the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy at Queen's University Belfast said it was "vitally important that Northern Ireland strengthens its interconnectivity with our partners both in Great Britain and Ireland".

There are also long-delayed plans to build an interconnecter between NI and the Republic.

Planning approval was first granted for the southern section in the Republic of Ireland in 2016.

The northern section was given the go-ahead by the then-infrastructure minister in Northern Ireland Nichola Mallon in 2020, after previous consent in the absence of a minister was quashed.

In a subsequent court challenge, a High Court judge refused to overturn planning permission, despite identifying a legal flaw in the decision-making process.

Local campaigners continue to lobby against the project.