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

Approach adopted
The process adopted by WG1 to develop the grid designs is essentially the same as the
one used by TSOs to plan their own internal grid enhancements, although it may differ in
some of the detail. This is best shown by the figure below:
Figure 0-2 General Procedure divided into logical steps
The NSCOGI study presented a unique opportunity to collect the ten countries’ views of
generation and load in the year 2030 to create a Reference scenario (the details of which
are set out in Appendix A 2). This data was combined with technical parameters and IEA
fuel and CO prices to carry out market analysis to simulate the expected amount of
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generation produced by each fuel type and investigate the expected import/export
position of each country and associated CO emissions. In this way the potential for
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increasing trading capacity between countries can be investigated, although this
investigation only assesses the additional cross border capacity that might be supported
by market analysis alone, and therefore does not yet represent an investment plan.
Network design and analysis were then carried out to investigate the physical behaviour of
the grids, based on the technical parameters of the region’s electricity grid. Selection of
candidate investments was optimised to reinforce the grid to meet the market needs
derived from the 2030 generation and load scenario (including connection of new offshore
generation). Optimised outline grid designs were confirmed as viable and refined with
more targeted grid and market simulations.
A final market analysis explored and what benefits might arise in terms of reduced 2030
production costs as a result of the grid expansion strategies proposed in the previous
stages. A comparison of the costs and benefits is also carried out at this stage.
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