(Bloomberg) —
A large fire is raging at a key electricity converter station in the U.K., shutting down a major cable that brings power from France to Britain.
The outage couldn’t come at a worse time with supplies already short and prices at record highs. Britain is a net importer of power, with France its biggest supplier via two 2,000 megawatt cables that run across the English Channel.
Firefighters have been battling the blaze since the middle of the night and smoke continues to billow from the site.
The fire will still take several hours to put out, according to Kent Fire and Rescue Service. Flows on the 2,000 megawatt IFA-1 cable halted just after midnight, according to National Grid Plc data. The second IFA-2 cable is currently unaffected, a spokesperson said.
“With margins already tight for this winter,” the outage will “tighten those margins further, resulting in higher U.K. power prices,” said Adam Lewis, partner at Hartree Partners LP. “This is also likely to tighten the U.K. gas markets as the U.K. will need to substitute imports with its own generation.”
At the height of the incident, 12 fire engines plus other specialist vehicles were fighting the fire using compressed air foam to prevent the fire from spreading to other nearby buildings.
The fire also shut down the Eurostar track temporarily early on Wednesday, causing delays to the service.
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