Behind the scenes at the Viking Link Interconnector at Bicker Fen – the £1.7 billion project from the National Grid and Siemens Energy
Almost hidden within our south Lincolnshire countryside is a state-of-the-art facility which bosses say will play a vital role in ensuring the country has a clean, cheap and secure energy supply for the future.
We took a behind the scenes tour to see what the project is all about.
The Viking Link Interconnector – which will act in a similar way to a laptop power cable, but on a huge scale – has been built on the outskirts of Donington to bring in and transmit renewable energy between this country and Denmark.
The National Grid and contractor Siemens Energy began building this converter station in 2020 and it is due to be completed at the end of this year, despite challenges posed by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
A replica facility has also been built in Jutland, by Danish partner Energinet, and the two sites are linked by approximately 765km of cable, including about 630km on the sea bed, to create a ‘super energy highway’ between this country and Europe to allow excess power to be moved to where it is needed and ensuring a secure supply.
Once it becomes operational next year, the link bring in and transmit 1.4GW of power, which is enough to power 1.4million homes – one and a half times the population of Lincolnshire.
Phil Sandy, director of new interconnectors at the National Grid, said sharing renewable energy between this country and Europe can help consumers’ bills and support security.
He said “Interconnectors balance the network. We are connected to Denmark so if they have excess renewable energy it can be brought into the UK and if we have excess power that we don’t need it can be exported to Denmark. It achieves a cheaper and cleaner energy supply.
“It is one of the tools that the UK system can use. Renewable energy is a cheaper form of energy. It can contribute to reduce bills.
“Generally we can’t store electricity at this level. We will be connected to the grids in Europe. If they have excess power, we can bring that in and if we have excess power, we can send that to Denmark. It helps with energy security.”
The Viking Link will be the National Grid’s sixth interconnector and takes power from the UK grid as alternating current (AC) and converts it to direct current (DC) – the most efficient way to transmit energy between the two stations.
It is also the longest land and seabed link in the world - with the final sections being laid during the coming weeks by the Prysmian Group.
Mr Sandy said: “It has been referred to as a green energy superhighway.
“The role of interconnectors has been increased with the need to meet net zero.
“Net zero is really important - no matter who you speak to. For me personally it is great to contribute to and help with the building of this project.
“These projects take a long time to come to fruition. We are looking into the future. To see all the hard work of the teams working on this project and we are nearly there.”
The teams have put in about three million hours of work into creating the project, which the partners say costs about two billion euros (£1.7bn).
While the underwater cable makes landfall at Sutton-on-Sea, Bicker Fen was chosen as the site of the converter facility due to its proximity to the village sub station.
Since 2020, the teams have been laying cables from the coast to the new site in Bicker Fen using horizontal direct drilling techniques and have even gone under the Forty Foot Drain. The land cable has now been laid and tested.
Since July 2020, hundreds of people have been busy creating the converter station, which covers an area the size of 12 football pitches.
Phil Spain, senior project manager for the National Grid, has been working on the project for four years. He said: “The first thing we did was build the road. We had to build two bridges – a temporary one and a proper bridge. It is important to have the main infrastructure in.
“There is so much power in the North Sea and we need to tap into it. The East Coast is very attractive to bring in power. Lincolnshire is attractive for a number of reasons, its proximity to the over head lines is one.”
The station is made up of two big halls, which contain the specialist equipment to convert the electricity into the right current to be transferred across the North Sea or into our network. The on-site buildings were constructed by the end of last year and then the next job of bringing in the electrical equipment started.
Behind the halls is an impressive array of outdoor electrical equipment, including a Cable Sealing End - experts described as acting similarly to circuit breakers in our homes.
Also in this yard are seven giant transformers which were transported on a slow moving large truck and required a number of rolling road closures as the equipment made its way through Lincolnshire to Bicker Fen.
The transformers, which weigh about 250 tonnes, had been created in a factory in Nuremburg and transported over to the site, and are now plugged into the converter hall, which help with the conversion of the current.
Mr Sandy explained this would be positive pressure environment and had to be very clean.
He said: “Once we are operational this room will be totally sealed off. Only a handful of people will see this. For the next 25 years, it will be under lock and key.”
UK-side Siemens Project Manager Scott Williams has also been working on this project for a number of years and is excited to see it come to fruition.
He said: “This (facility) is 520kW – this is the first one in the world at this voltage with the latest hard and soft ware.
“This is the latest technology – where you get speed and transmission of electricity.
“It is the first one in the world at this level with this technology.”
Mr Williams said that once the station is running at full capacity – 1400mw – it can change direction of the current within just three minutes.
But things have not all been plain sailing as the project has had to deal with some major global events such as the Covid pandemic and the impact of the War in Urkaine.
Mr Spain said: “When we started, we were in Covid but we put a lot of precautions in place and changed the ways we worked.”
Mr Williams added: “There are a lot of challenges on project that we have had to overcome. When challenges come you look for solutions.
“Items that we were due to get from Ukraine, we sourced in Italy instead.”
And there has been an interesting personal connection while working on the outskirts of Donington for Australian Mr Williams. During a walk in the centre of Donington, the Australian was astounded to discover the statue of explorer Matthew Flinders, who curcumnavigated the country and made its first map.
He said: “Could you imagine how excited I was? I wasn’t aware that Matthew Flinders was born in Donington. I was so excited that I called my mum and dad to let them know.”
Since then he has helped to build up strong links with the community with volunteers from Viking Link helping undertake work in the churchyard along with raising money with a Christmas present tombola and supporting festive meals.
The project is also helping to support people living with dementia in Lincolnshire by donating more than 1,200 specialist wristbands.
The Dementia Wristband campaign is a scheme being run by Lincolnshire Police and provides waterproof yellow bands to those living with dementia across the region.
They are available free of charge to people living with dementia and each one contains a small microchip programmed with their next of kin’s contact number.
The technology enables anyone with a smart phone to scan the chip so police or members of the public can help reunite the resident with their loved ones or carer if needed.
The project has already been successfully piloted by the Alford and Mablethorpe policing team.
NHS figures from 2022 estimate there are 12,000 people living with dementia in Lincolnshire.
Speaking on behalf of National Grid and its principal contractors, James Brown from Viking Link said: “This is a fantastic scheme which has already made a huge difference to dementia patients across the county. It is crucial that people living with dementia can get to a place of safety and security, with friends or family, as quickly as possible and we are pleased to be supporting Lincolnshire Police with this latest roll-out.”
