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

CAPEX [€'m]
35,000
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
RADIAL
Network Design
MESH
Network Design
-
National Network
Reinforcement
National OWP
Connection
Interconnection Total
8,573 13,524 8,757 30,855
8,274 12,038 9,702 30,014
Figure 5-10 Comparison of Radial and Meshed New Investment Costs by Country for 2030 Reference
Scenario (additional to TYNDP projects)
Figure 5-10 shows the breakdown of the investment costs into national reinforcements,
the connection of the additional 13 GW of offshore wind park and new interconnections
for both designs. This categorisation of capital costs into investment areas or types allows
the concentration of spend to be assessed.
In total, the meshed design has a capital cost of around 800 M€ (2,7%) less than that of
the radial design. Both designs have similar requirements as to the national
reinforcements; as may have been expected, the radial design has higher costs connecting
offshore wind parks back to shore; while meshed has slightly higher offshore costs to
accommodate some of the output from the offshore wind parks, reducing the requirement
for direct connections of the offshore wind parks back to shore.
The total capital costs for the radial and meshed network designs are represented in their
corresponding annualised capital cost values in Table 5-1.The annuity values are based on
the average real net discount rate of 6% and an assumed useful asset life of 40 years. The
rate and the period were seen to be comparable with those used by most of the TSOs
across the North Seas countries. The discount rate is in real values (i.e. excludes inflation)
and therefore allows constant values to be used.
Table 5-1: Total and Annualised Investment Costs for Radial and Meshed Designs (additional to TYNDP
projects)
Investment Costs Radial Design
Meshed design
Total Investment Costs [M€] 30,855 30,014
Annualised Investment Costs [M€ p.a.] 2,051 1,995
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