A Kent power plant fire that disrupted electricity supplies between the UK and France will not be fully working again until 2023, National Grid has warned.
The site at Sellindge in Kent, which brings electricity from France to the UK, was left damaged by a fire in September as the UK’s energy crisis began to unfold.
The fire, which came amid growing pressure on the gas supply market, halted electricity imports via the 2,000 megawatt power cable until March next year but on Thursday the Grid said this had been delayed.
An update said "extensive work" was needed in order to return it safely to service.
It comes as the UK faces record energy prices after a global gas market surge raised the cost of running gas power plants, which has been compounded by a string of outages and low wind speeds.
National Grid said: "We are completely focused on getting IFA safely returned to service as soon as possible and ensuring we are able to support security of supply."
In addition to the fire, a planned outage has been taking place at the IFA link covering a further 1000MW capacity.
National Grid said that it had been able to reduce that outage time slightly, meaning that it will come back to service on 20 October rather than 23 October.
September's fire had helped send UK wholesale power prices surging, adding to pressures that had already seen wholesale gas prices jump 250%.
Last week, a report from the National Grid forecast that the UK would face a tighter margin between supply and demand for electricity supply this winter - but declared that there was enough capacity to keep the lights on.
Ofgem, meanwhile, has warned households face another steep rise in energy bills from next April when the new energy price cap comes into force.
The price cap will reflect current wholesale prices which have led to the collapse of 18 energy suppliers this year.
