NATIONAL GRID operator, Eirgrid, has finished raising the €600 million it needs to fund the development of an electricity connection between Ireland and Britain.

The State agency, which manages Ireland’s electricity transmission networks, is building an interconnector from the east coast to Wales that will carry up to 500 mega watts (MW) of power, roughly the capacity of a medium-sized generating plant.

Yesterday, Barclays Bank and BNP Paribas raised €160 million in loans for the project.

This completes the €600 million needed to pay for the interconnector.

Eirgrid has already secured €300 million in funding from the European Investment Bank and a further €110 million in grant support from the EU, which has a policy of encouraging interconnection between electricity networks in neighbouring member states.

The agency is making up the balance of the €600 million from its own resources.

Its chief executive, Dermot Byrne, said that the money raised through Barclays and BNP was secured at attractive rates.

The actual laying of the cable will begin in June and the interconnector is scheduled to be fully up and running in 2012.

Barclays last year provided the €39 million needed by Eirgrid to pay for its takeover of the System Operator Northern Ireland (SONI), its equivalent in the North.

Yesterday, Barclays head of structured finance Ireland, Niall Quinn, predicted that the interconnector could bring benefits to a number of its clients in the power generation business, who could potentially have the option of exporting electricity to Britain via the cable.