National Grid studies UK's offshore network development

Two new projects to plan for the growth of offshore electricity connections to deliver power from North Sea wind farms have been initiated.

National Grid ESO has appointed DNV GL as a lead partner in its Offshore Wind Coordination project in Great Britain, which is to analyse a coordinated approach for offshore grid development. The project will feed into the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s wider offshore transmission network review.

With an installed capacity over 10 GW of offshore wind and soon to be home to the world’s largest wind farm, Dogger Bank, the UK leads the way globally in offshore generation. Delivering a future-proof grid which ensures all turbines, substations and cables are connected to the grid safely and effectively is therefore of paramount importance.

DNV GL has been commissioned to assess the viability of a coordinated approach, including: assessing technology availability and analysing technical and regulatory barriers and solutions. The company will also develop offshore and onshore grid designs and conduct a societal cost-benefit analysis of the offshore grid.

National Grid ESO Head of Strategy and Regulation, Craig Dyke, said: ‘We are committed to helping facilitate offshore wind’s contribution to the UK’s net zero target, as well as ensuring value for money for consumers and reducing the environmental and social impact of onshore connections to local communities.’

Meanwhile National Grid Ventures, the commercial development arm of National Grid, and the Dutch Transmission System Operator TenneT have announced a cooperation agreement to explore the feasibility of connecting Dutch and British wind farms to the energy systems of both countries via subsea interconnectors.

The UK and the Netherlands have both established ambitious targets to expand offshore wind capacity in the North Sea, and delivering large-scale offshore wind growth efficiently will require significant amounts of new infrastructure.

The companies will explore the development of a multi-purpose interconnector (MPI) to simultaneously connect up to 4 GW of British and Dutch offshore wind between the British and Dutch electricity systems, providing an additional two gigawatts of interconnection capacity between the countries. 

By connecting into both systems, the MPI will enable spare transmission capacity to be used to trade electricity between the countries, thereby increasing the potential utilisation of offshore infrastructure, says National Grid. And reducing the amount of infrastructure needed will mitigate the environmental impact on coastal communities, compared to the current approach in which interconnectors and wind farms are developed and connected separately.

The two companies aim to have a path-finder project defined by the end of 2021 with a view to delivering an operational asset by 2029.