A huge fire is raging near a key 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 low and prices at record highs. Britain is a major importer of power, with France the biggest supplier of two 2,000 megawatt cables that run across the English Channel.
The blaze has been fighting Fightfighters since the middle of the night and smoke continues to cause smoke to billow from the site.
According to Kent Fire and Rescue Service, the fire will still take several hours to put out. Flows on the 2,000 megawatt IFA-I-1 cable halted shortly after midnight, according to National Grid Plc data. The second IFA -2 line is not affected, a spokesperson told reported.
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 will also work to tighten U.K. gas markets as the U.K. might need to substitute imports with its own generation. At the height of the incident, 12 fire engines and other third-party vehicles were fighting the fire using compressed air foam to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby buildings.
Fire also caused the Eurostar train temporarily early on Wednesday to reverse its flight, causing delays to the service.