Offshore Electricity Infrastructure in Europe - European Wind Energy ...

were rejected as being not beneficial in the previous
stage. The reasoning behind this is that the high price
differential still indicates that there could be benefit in
linking the two countries concerned (for details on the
price differentials after step 1 refer to Annex D.III.).
Integrated solutions provide trade opportunities at a
lower capital cost, even though this trade is not always
unconstrained as the lines are sometimes loaded with
offshore wind energy. Thus, the reduced capital costs
may make a tee-in or hub-to-hub connection beneficial
where a direct interconnection was not.
Once the potential tee-in and hub-to-hub connections
to be assessed have been chosen, the number of
cases to be studied was further reduced by comparing
the proposed cases with the conclusions of the
case-independent model described in section 4.4. As
discussed, the case-independent model is useful as
a guidance to quickly evaluate whether a certain case
needs further investigation or not. Cases where the
case-independent model clearly showed that there is
no benefit in going for an integrated solution have thus
not been investigated further 30 .
The promising cases were ranked according to the net
benefit of the corresponding direct interconnectors
(the non-beneficial ones from the previous phase),
with the most beneficial being assessed first. The
FIGURE 4.22: dIREcT OFFShORE GRId dESIGN - STEP2: MAP OF ThE SElEcTEd hUb-TO-hUb cONNEcTIONS
Wind Farms Onshore substation
To shore Connection of Wind Farms
(Hub and Individual)
Existing Interconnectors
Entso-E TYNDP Interconnectors
Kriegers Flak – Three Leg Interconnector
2x Direct Interconnector
close to each other
2x Direct Interconnector
close to each other
Direct Design step 1 – Direct Interconnectors
Direct Design step 2
Hub-to-hub and Tee-in interconnectors
Direct Design step 3
Meshed Grid Design
2x Direct Interconnector
close to each other
More detailed maps
including information on
the voltage level,
the number of circuits
and the technology
(monopole or bipole DC)
can be downloaded from
www.offshoregrid.eu
30 Cases where the case-independent model indicated that the benefit is positive have thus been further analysed with the infrastructure
cost model and the power market model. As the case-independent model only gives a guidance to be backed up with more
detailed case-specific analysis, the cases with a marginal or only slightly negative benefit have also been investigated.
OffshoreGrid – Final Report
61