SSE Renewables says the publication of National Grid ESO’s Holistic Network Design (HND) leaves 15GW of offshore wind still requiring clarification over connection timing.
The HND, released today, is an “important step” towards identifying much of the strategic grid infrastructure required to deliver on the UK’s ambitious target of 50GW of offshore wind by 2030, SSE Renewables stated.
The developer has also warned a “significant volume” of offshore wind developments, including 15GW of ScotWind projects, have been omitted from the design process.
SSE Renewables said it believes it is critical that NG-ESO follow up those projects outside of the scope of the HND, notably the remaining 15GW of the recent ScotWind leasing round, and give them “sufficient visibility of their connection date and location as soon as possible this year” before being finalised in early 2023.
The company has urged the NG-ESO to go “further and faster” to provide clarity to these remaining projects.
Any further delays would create greater uncertainty and risks the delivery of the 2030 target, it said.
SSE Renewables offshore wind director Paul Cooley said: “Today’s announcement is a welcome first step in identifying the supporting infrastructure needed to help enable Britain’s transition to net zero through the delivery of 50GW offshore wind by 2030.
“It must be highlighted though that there is a significant volume of offshore wind capacity still without certainty of their connection date and location which needs to be urgently resolved.”
In response to the publication of the HND, Angeles Sandoval, Policy Manager at Scottish Renewables, said: “While it is encouraging that 11GW of the offshore wind capacity brought through the recent ScotWind seabed leasing process will be enabled by these network reinforcements, it is important to remember that another 14GW of projects are still waiting to understand how they will be able to transmit the power they produce.
“We would urge both National Grid and the regulator to act quickly to set out further plans which will allow these projects to contribute to the climate change mitigation and economic development ambitions of both Scotland and the UK.”
The SSE Renewables-Marubeni-Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) site secured in the recent ScotWind leasing round will form part of this follow up HND process and can contribute to the UK’s 2030 target utilising new commercial-scale floating offshore wind technology.
The site will be capable of delivering up to 2.6GW of new installed capacity and would be one of the world’s largest floating offshore wind farms.