At the beginning of 2002, trade in electricity across the Sea of Moyle between Ireland and Scotland commenced as the Moyle Interconnector entered service, thus linking for the first time the electricity systems of Northern Ireland and Scotland, and ultimately connecting the Irish system to the European mainland. Alan Rainey of Moyle Interconnector explains the background to the project. The history of electricity systems throughout the developed world is of small local systems connecting with each other to form larger systems. These have progressively interconnected with their neighbours to form regional, national and ultimately continental systems. As electricity companies across Europe had over the years responded to the benefits of interconnection, by 1990 the European picture was that the electricity systems of the Western European mainland were fully interconnected within the synchronous system of UCPTE (Union for the Co-ordination of the Production and Transmission of Electricity). Interconnections to Great Britain, to the Nordel system in Scandinavia and to Eastern Europe were in place. Among regions with industrial populations of significant size, only Ireland and Berlin remained isolated.
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