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An interconnector is a transmission link between two nodes of your model: a grid connection between regions of one country, or a cross-border cable between countries. Where technologies decide what a node can build and run, interconnectors determine which nodes electricity can flow between, in which direction, and how much of it. Interconnectors only exist where there is more than one node to connect. A scenario for a single country at national resolution has none; regional and multi-national resolutions have as many as the model’s topology defines.

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Interconnectors in your scenario

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Calibrated per model

Each country model ships with a calibrated interconnector set: the links that exist today plus those already committed, taken from the same asset data as the rest of the model (existing assets, future assets). Their capacities, and the years those capacities change, are model inputs you can inspect and edit like any other. You will only see the links that belong to the geography and spatial resolution you picked.
2

Choose at creation

When creating a scenario, the Interconnectors field under Configuration lists the calibrated set with everything selected. Deselect any link you want to leave out of the model, or search to narrow the list and deselect every match in one go. The All / Included / Excluded tabs let you review the mix before creating, and the field header names the excluded links on hover.
3

One row per line

Each row is a line between a pair of nodes, so removing a link is one click regardless of how the model represents it underneath. Rows are named for the nodes they join, for example North-Central to South, because a line has no name of its own.
Interconnectors are not a requirement for a model: a scenario with every link deselected is valid, and models each node as an island. That is a legitimate question to ask, but it is a severe constraint. If a node cannot meet its own peak demand from local capacity alone, the run will fail as infeasible rather than import its way out.

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Lines and directions

The model works in directed links, one per direction of flow, and prices and constrains each direction separately. A two-way line is two of them, and the list merges the pair into a single row so that the common case, taking a whole line out, is one click rather than two. That row carries a caret which expands it into a row per direction. Counts stay in directions, so a model with 12 two-way lines reports 24 interconnectors in the header, the tabs, and the select-all.

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Limiting a line to one direction

Expand a line and you can keep one direction and deselect the other. An asymmetric selection models a link that can only carry power one way. Reasons to want one:
  • Testing whether a neighbour’s exports are load-bearing, by letting a node receive but never send.
  • Representing a contracted or regulated flow that only runs in one direction, ahead of the model supporting that as a policy input.
  • Isolating the direction of a corridor you are actually interested in, so trade in the other direction cannot mask the effect.
What the field selects by default is the calibrated set as the model ships it, which for some lines is a single direction rather than two. Leaving a line as you found it is the right choice unless the question you are asking is specifically about one-way flow: the shape it arrives in is the shape the model was calibrated on.

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Deselecting interconnectors and calibration

A country model is calibrated as a whole: its base-year capacities, generation, emissions, and trade are checked against historical data with the full network in place. Take a link out, or hold one open in a single direction, and the flows between nodes change, so a scenario built on a reduced network no longer meets the calibration standard. Read its results as exploratory rather than validated against history. Trade is the part that moves first. A node that historically imported at peak has to cover that demand from its own capacity instead, which shifts its generation mix, its emissions, and usually its system cost. Neighbouring nodes shift with it. None of this is wrong, but none of it reproduces the base year any more. The scenario still runs, and comparisons between your own scenarios remain valid. What you give up is the guarantee that the base year reproduces history. Scenario Builder flags this in the creation form while anything is deselected; restoring the calibrated set as it shipped clears the flag. To keep calibration and still test a constrained network, leave the link selected and set its capacity instead. A capacity of zero from a given year removes the flow without removing the link, and the base year still matches history.

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Where interconnectors appear