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

To provide an indication of total costs, the annual VOM costs are also included. The
capital costs were represented as annualised values in the same manner as used in the
Reference Scenario, and are summarised in Table 5-5 below.
Table 5-5 : Comparison of Annualised Investment and VOM Costs for radial and meshed grid design for
RES+ sensitivity on the Reference Scenario
National Network
Reinforcement
National OWPP
Connection
RADIAL Network Design MESH Network Design
Capital
Cost
[M€p.a.]
VOM
[M€p.a.]
Total
[M€p.a.]
Capital
Cost
[M€p.a.]
VOM
[M€p.a.]
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Total
[M€p.a.]
703 195 898 612 194 806
2,328 591 2,919 1,987 456 2,443
Interconnection 767 215 982 930 287 1,216
Total 3,798 1,001 4,799 3,528 937 4,465
Total Costs
excluding radial
OWPP connection
costs
1,880 1,546
Excluding the costs of connecting the OWPPs (assuming the default is the radial network
design), the annual costs for the radial design are 1,880 M€, whereas the meshed design
costs are 1,546 M€.
5.1.7 Operational Aspects
Although not within the scope of this study, the operational aspects of an integrated
meshed grid have to be considered. A number of studies have concluded that the
operation of a meshed DC system is more complex than the known and proven radial
design for connection of offshore wind farms and shore-to-shore interconnections. [30],
[35].
Although not necessarily necessary for the meshed designs presented in this report, new
technologies, such as the commercial availability of a DC breaker should improve the
operational challenge [36].