July 17, 2007 AFX news

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - The European Commission said the deadline for its inquiry into the UK's National Grid and the Netherlands state-owned TenneT's proposed power network joint venture is set for Aug 10.

The venture will see the installation of a high-voltage connection between the power grids of the UK and the Netherlands.

The 260 kilometre connection, dubbed BritNed, will allow energy trading between the two countries; aimed at boosting the reliability of electricity supplies to both.

Switzerland's ABB Ltd won a 350 mln usd order to supply underwater and underground cables for the link. Germany's Siemens AG will construct two high voltage direct current (HVDC) converter stations at the Isle of Grain in Kent and Maasvlakte near Rotterdam.

The system will have total capacity of 1,000 megawatts and will come online in 2010.

simon.zekaria@thomson.com sz/vs

---