24th September 2014

Normandie 3 starts delivering power to Jersey

Jersey has been buying electricity from France since the mid-1980s and, in 2013, the year after the first of the island’s mains cables to the European mainland was decommissioned, a contract was granted for the laying of the £45m, 35km-long Normandie 3. It took very little time for work to begin, with preparation in March 2014, the cable being sunk in May and June, and the land-based parts of the infrastructure completed in July. The cable enters the sea at Pirou Plage in Normandy and arrives in Jersey at Grouville Bay.

The link was energised on 23 September and delivered electricity to the island for the first time at lunchtime on the 24th. It supplemented Normandie 2, which remained in operation and, together, the two delivered 160 megawatts of energy.