Qualla: East–West Interconnector

East–West Interconnector: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Studies for an electricity cable between Ireland and Britain began in the 1970s, but the engineering problem was always the same: how to push half a gigawatt of power across one of the busiest sea floors in Europe, through a marine environment populated by U-boat wrecks, wind farms, fishing trawls and ferry traffic, and keep it running for thirty years. The answer, when it finally arrived in 2012, was 261 kilometres of HVDC Light cable - 186 of them under the Irish Sea - making landfall at Rush in County Dublin and Barkby Beach in north Wales, from where it runs overland to the converter station at Shotton in Deeside. From the air, it is invisible. On a grid operator's screen it is one of the most consequential pieces of infrastructure on the island of Ireland.

East–West Interconnector: Why It Matters

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Ireland's electricity grid was, until 2012, a small and largely self-contained system. Self-contained grids are fragile. Lose a major generator and there is no neighbour to lean on. They also waste good wind. Ireland's western Atlantic coast is one of the most resource-rich wind ...

East–West Interconnector: From Rush to Shotton

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The route runs from a converter station at Rush North Beach in County Dublin, out across the Irish Sea floor to Barkby Beach in Wales, then over land via Shotton in Deeside, where a second converter station feeds the cable into the British National Grid. Total length 261 kilometr...

East–West Interconnector: Two Decades of Planning

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Studies began at the Electricity Supply Board in the 1970s. They were revived in the 1990s as part of a joint study with the UK's National Grid plc, with European Union support. In 2004 the Commission for Energy Regulation, acting on a request from the Irish government, asked the...

East–West Interconnector: Inauguration and Faults

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 20 September 2012 the link was inaugurated at Batterstown in County Meath, with the UK Secretary for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, and European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger doing the speeches. It has run almost continuously since, with ...