Linking up wind farms at sea and connecting back to shore rather than building dozens of individual connections has long been touted as a potentially more cost effective solution than the current practice of building individual connections.
National Grid and wind developers such as Mainstream Renewable Power have been among vocal critics of the current regime, dubbing it a “waste of money”.
As each connection currently also requires an individual onshore landing point and large onshore substation to be built, a co-ordinated approach could also help reduce the number of planning headaches faced by developers. Warwick Energy recently admitted its proposed Dudgeon offshore wind farm faced significant delay after it was refused planning permission for an onshore substation by Breckland Council.
A co-ordinated offshore approach could also form the start of the so-called supergrid, where connections to other European countries such as Germany and Norway mean the power generated offshore can be more easily exported, and power imported when the wind doesn’t blow and demand is high.
The report suggested that a co-ordinated approach could save up to £3.5 billion. “We would be crazy not to encourage it,” said energy minister Charles Hendry. However, his department’s report warns that the approach is not without significant risk. These may be stranded assets, increased technological challenges and complexity; and that there may be a temporary reduction in transmission system flexibility and security of supply for early phases. For example, if more than one farm is initially dependent on a single cable, and that fails, all generation relying on that link would be lost. As well, high voltage direct current multi-terminal links have yet to be proven, warns Decc.
In tandem with the report Ofgem is consulting on how generators can be incentivised to do more broad preparatory work than for just their own wind farms to make a more co-ordinated offshore grid possible.
See the consulation here.
See the report here.