Energy & Utilities

Electricity interconnectors

High-voltage links that join two power grids so electricity can flow to wherever it is most valuable — and the ways an owner turns that flow into an investment. Pick a real asset below and follow it through the map, the business model and a working returns model.

In focus ·
Example

Drag the sliders to see how the link physically flows — and what it earns.

700 MW
+€18
95%
Flow direction
Power on the link
Value on the link
price × flow
Revenue p.a.
to the owner

01

What it is & how it works

02

How it earns

Model A · merchant

Cap-and-floor

The owner keeps the congestion rent, but a regulator sets a floor (a minimum revenue that protects lenders if spreads collapse) and a cap (excess above which money returns to consumers). Lower risk than pure merchant, capped upside. This is how a number of merchant interconnectors — the links to France, the Netherlands and Norway among them — are financed, by private and quasi-private owners.

03

What it costs, and how it's financed

Revenue → operating costs → EBITDAMargin

The capital stack
Who bears the costallocation

    Build timeline · concept to power
      04

      Cash flows & returns

      Build & operating

      m/MW
      m
      k/MW
      %

      Revenue regime & tax

      m
      m
      %
      ×

      Financing & hold

      ×
      %
      %
      y
      Unlevered IRR
      asset / project return
      Levered IRR
      return to equity
      Equity multiple
      MOIC over hold
      Payback
      project, undiscounted
      Cash-flow profile — equity invested   returned
      Show the year-by-year schedule
      05

      What drives the return