The North Seas Countries' Offshore Grid Initiative - Initial ... - Benelux

Executive Summary
Recognising the important contribution the resources of the North Seas could make
towards achieving renewable targets up to 2020 and carbon targets beyond, the North
Seas Countries' Offshore Grid initiative was formed as the responsible body to evaluate
and facilitate coordinated development of a possible offshore grid that maximises the
efficient and economic use of those renewable resources and infrastructure investments.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on 3 December 2010 by the 10
countries around the North Seas represented by their energy ministries, supported by
their Transmission System Operators (TSOs, organised in the European Network of
Transmission System Operators for Electricity ENTSO-E), their regulators (organised in the
Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators ACER) and the European Commission,
together forming the "North Seas Countries' Offshore Grid Initiative (NSCOGI)".
The MoU breaks down the overarching objective into a set of deliverables to be taken
forward, initially for a two year period, by three Working Groups (WGs): WG1 - grid
implementation, WG2- market and regulation and WG3 - permissions and planning. Each
WG is chaired by representatives of two countries’ energy ministries and coordinated by a
programme board. This report sets out the initial findings of the TSOs’ study within WG1
supporting the NSCOG1 final report.
Go it alone, or do it together?
The information contained in this report aims to evaluate the long-term development of an
offshore grid structure in the North Seas. While some coordination already exists,
nationally with the integrated connection of a number of offshore wind parks (e.g.
Germany and Great Britain) and between nations in the development of interconnectors,
this report seeks to answer the question of how best to exploit future offshore generation
resources – by continuing to ‘go it alone’, or by ‘doing it together’? It therefore provides a
view on how a meshed offshore grid might develop over the period 2020 to 2030 as the
countries in the North Seas region advance towards a low carbon energy future. It is based
on the governments’ best view of energy generation and demand in 2030 as expressed in
summer 2011.
The designs presented in this report are shown to illustrate possible electricity
transmission system designs. They do not represent a physical construction programme
or the investment decisions of the involved Governments, TSOs or offshore generator
developers. Actual development of the transmission systems in each of the North Seas
countries may differ significantly to those presented by this study, due to necessary
assumptions around perfect functioning markets, absence of regulatory barriers and
common assumptions on fuel / CO prices being made for this study.
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