Scottish 'Yes' Would Boost Chances for Norway Power Cable

A win for the Scottish independence movement in Thursday's referendum would boost the chances of building a power interconnection to Scotland from Norway, a project partner said.

Three Norwegian power producers and Swedish utility Vattenfall plan to build a 1,400-megawatt cable, NorthConnect, from Norway to Peterhead in northeast Scotland.

Norway's state-owned grid operator Statnett and Britain's National Grid (NGG) are seeking government approval to build another cable, which would reach land in Blyth, northeast England.

"In the case of a 'yes' vote ... the business case (for NorthConnect) will be strengthened in general, because Alex Salmond has been very much in favour of it," Oeyvind Stakkeland, director of regulatory affairs at Agder Energi, told Reuters.

Scottish First Minister Salmond has led the campaign to end Scotland's 307-year-old union with England. On the referendum's eve, polls showed support for staying in the United Kingdom just ahead of backing for independence.

Whatever the referendum result, the NorthConnect partners will still have to overcome hurdles in Norway.

The previous centre-left government granted a monopoly to Statnett to build interconnections outside the country. The current right-wing government, in place since last year, has promised to change the laws to allow more competition.

"Two new interconnectors are not enough. We need more, and we need to allow other companies, in addition to Statnett to also build, own and manage interconnectors," Tom Nysted, chief executive of Agder Energi, told a conference on Wednesday.

He was referring to Statnett's plans to build a cable to Britain and another to Germany.

Nysted said Norway needed more cables to reduce a power surplus, which has hurt profitability by keeping domestic prices low.

Stakkeland said the NorthConnect partners did not know when the government might alter the law, but that no change was expected before Norway grants licenses to Statnett's cables.

Norway's Oil and Energy Minister Tord Lien told Reuters on Wednesday the government was committed to make sure the cables come online as planned - in 2018 to Germany and in 2020 to Britain.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Dale Hudson)