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

FIGURE 5.2: OvERvIEW ON OFFShORE WINd SUPPORT SchEMES ANd GRId cONNEcTION
hinders for instance the installation of wind farms
outside national territories of one country while connecting
it to this country. International agreement and
consolidation on this issue is greatly needed.
It should be mentioned that besides the incompatibility
of support schemes, also unaligned national
offshore wind energy development goals can hamper
the development of an offshore grid. This is because
strategic cross-border coordination with compatible
offshore goals, siting and timing can strongly support
the offshore grid development with offshore wind farm
clusters as major nodes.
Permitting
The permitting processes for offshore wind farms and
their connection to onshore landing points differ widely
across countries. This represents a medium barrier
from the point of view of the OffshoreGrid consortium.
There is a wide variety in the number of national executive
authorities involved in each country, and not
all countries carry out maritime spatial planning. This
causes the national permitting processes to differ in
level of detail, duration and costs, and they are largely
unsynchronised between authorities.
OffshoreGrid – Final Report
In most countries however the grid connection responsibility
lies with the national TSO who is obliged to
provide connection to offshore wind farms. This facilitates
a coordinated joint action among the responsible
TSOs which can for instance be led by ENTSO-E.
Operational responsibilities and offshore
grid codes
The clear allocation of operational responsibilities between
national TSOs is seen as a medium barrier for
an international offshore grid. Also, the harmonisation
of offshore grid codes used represents a challenge.
The possibility of setting up an internationally owned
and operated offshore TSO is currently discussed
[46]. The development of European network codes as
initiated by the European Commission is a first step
towards overcoming this challenge. For instance the
grid code on the connection requirements for offshore
wind turbines across Europe is planned to enter into
force in 2011/2012. Additional network codes, for example
codes for the grid operation or a network code
on electricity markets may further enhance the coordinated
planning of an offshore grid as well as its save
operation.
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