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STAR Capital Partners and Groupe Eurotunnel establish joint venture to develop an electricity interconnector between Great Britain and France

26 May 2011

STAR Capital Partners ("STAR Capital"), a leading European investment fund manager focused on investing in capital intensive businesses, announces today that it has reached an agreement to establish a joint venture with Groupe Eurotunnel to develop an electricity interconnector between Great Britain and France.

The interconnection of electricity networks is a priority in Europe, to provide greater energy security and to optimise energy production. The interconnector project created by STAR Capital and Eurotunnel will play an important role in developing European interconnector infrastructure between member states and will enable the safe optimisation of electricity transmission, an objective which is all the more necessary as it will resolve problems of supply volatility linked to offshore wind power.

Studies conducted by the two partners show that a twin cable 500MW Direct Current (DC) interconnector could be safely installed inside the service tunnel of the Channel Tunnel. The ElecLink project will increase cross Channel capacity by 25% to 2500MW. It will be a major step towards European energy integration.

The consumption of electricity is on the increase in both Britain and France and price differences exist between the two countries depending upon the time of day. This project aims to smooth the increase in these energy imbalances. Once the necessary regulatory authorisations have been obtained, Eleclink will further optimise the complementary nature of the two countries installed capacity and demand load as well as the development of more renewable energy.

To build and manage this installation, Eurotunnel – concession-holder for the Channel Tunnel – is working in association with European investment fund, STAR Capital in a joint venture, which will be owned 51% by STAR Capital and 49% by Eurotunnel. The investment will be in the order of €250 million.

This project underlines STAR Capital's investment strategy to provide capital for the development of strategic and value-added infrastructure.

The Project

ElecLink is proposing to install a 75km link between the two 400kV national networks. The proposed system for energy transfer is Direct Current (DC), for safety and line energy loss reduction. Using the existing Alternating Current (AC) network on either side of the Channel, installations will be:

  • Substations on Eurotunnel sites to change from AC to Direct Current; these substations will be equipped with state of the art 500MW converter stations (voltage source convertor).
  • Twin 100mm diameter, High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cables in the service tunnel.
  • On the UK side, the cables will be linked to the National Grid electrical substation at Sellindge, 14 km from the Tunnel exit at Folkestone.
  • The AC cables in France will be linked to the RTE "Les Mandarins" substation, 2.5km from the Tunnel exit at Coquelles.

Contact

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STAR Capital Partnership LLP

15th Floor, 33 Cavendish Square
London W1G 0PW
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 7016 8500
e-mail: mail@star-capital.com

Important Notice: we have become aware that an organisation with a similar name has been targeting individuals in the UK through unsolicited calls to make cryptocurrency investments. Our firm, STAR Capital Partnership LLP, does not engage in this type of activity.  Please see here for information on how to protect yourself from financial fraud and, if you have fallen victim to it, please report it to the UK Financial Conduct Authority by telephone or email: https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/protect-yourself-scams.