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

5.1.3 VOM Costs for Grid Design Options
In order to include all measurable costs in a comparison of costs and benefits, the variable
costs associated with operating and maintaining the new grid assets are calculated for
each design.
Table 5-2: Variable O&M Costs for Radial and Meshed Designs (additional to TYNDP projects)
Variable O&M Costs p.a. (M€) Radial Design Meshed design
National network Reinforcements 180 180
National OWP Connections 180 141
Interconnections 157 181
Total 516 502
5.1.4 Production Cost Savings Resulting from Grid Expansions
Developing the grid delivers benefits, some quantifiable and others non-quantifiable. This
section presents the quantifiable benefits – the reduction in 2030 variable production
costs in the region - that arise thanks to the grid expansion strategies discussed in the
previous section.
In assessing the benefits of new grid build, it is essential to remove other influences in the
analysis. The approach to calculating the reduction in production costs was to model the
production in year 2030 with the demand and generation assumptions derived from the
Reference Scenario, firstly with the initial 2020 grid and then with the two 2030 grid
designs. To model the 2030 Reference Scenario it was necessary to assume that all new
generation and demand in the Reference Scenario is connected, and in the case of new
offshore wind parks, that these are connected to their host countries. The benefits derived
therefore relate to the removal of congestions both internally in national grids and
between markets of different price characteristics.
There are other benefits of grid enhancements that were not analysed but include the
lower production costs arising from the connection of new efficient generation (already
assumed in the base case) and enhanced security of supply. A meshed grid provides more
paths for offshore wind farms to transmit their power, meaning that an outage of one
cable to shore does not completely block their access to the grid.
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