LONDON: A new high-voltage power line between France and Britain has started to flow at full capacity, Britain's National Grid said on Friday.

With a capacity of 1 gigawatt, the direct current power cable, called Interconnexion France-Angleterre 2 (IFA-2), can provide enough energy to power 1 million British homes and is expected to meet 1.2% of Britain's electricity demand.

Wholesale power traders started buying capacity on Thursday to transport power across the 149-mile subsea power cable, National Grid said.

The line was initially scheduled to start transmission tests in the third quarter of 2020 and go live shortly after.

National Grid has four operational interconnectors - two to France (IFA and IFA2), one to the Netherlands (BritNed) and one to Belgium (Nemo Link).

Two more projects are under construction, one to Norway which will be operational this year and one to Denmark, which will come into operation in 2023.