Work starts on France to Italy interconnector

Construction work has commenced on a 190 km power interconnection spanning the Alps between France and Italy. The line, which French grid operator RTE has started to work on, is being built to ease the pressure on existing power connections between the countries.

The 1.2 GW line will be situated in existing tunnels through the mountains, have a voltage of 320,000 V, and will cost around €1bn. RTE and the Italian grid operator are jointly funding the line, which is due to be completed in 2019. It will run between Chambery and Turin.

A total of 2.7 GW of connections currently exist between the two countries.

Italy imports around a third of French power exports – last year taking 19 TWh.

The EU has an aim to increase the amount of interconnections between EU Member States as part of its Energy Union policy objective and to facilitate moves towards a single European electricity market. It has set a target for all Member Sates to have an interconnection capacity of 10% of power generation capacity, which it wants to increase to 15% by 2030.