The UK Government has concluded its Offshore Transmission Network Review (OTNR) and has published a summary of recommendations.
The OTNR was launched in 2020 to review the approach to the design and delivery of offshore transmission.
The current developer-led approach was developed when offshore wind was a nascent sector and ambition for delivery by 2030 was just 10GW.
The OTNR was led by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), now the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), with support from a range of government and industry project partners including the Crown Estate, Crown Estate Scotland, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Marine Scotland and Ofgem.
It includes three main recommendations broken down into actions.
In the first recommendation DESNZ will work with project partners to develop options for a strategic approach for the deployment of offshore wind, interconnectors and multi-purpose interconnectors that evolves over time as roles and responsibilities change.
In the second recommendation DESNZ will work with Ofgem on adoption of delivery models that maximise efficiency in terms of cost and risk.
In the third recommendation concerning the timing of transmission design and delivery, Ofgem will undertake further analysis on the optimum timing of detailed design and delivery of transmission infrastructure to determine changes required for a future framework delivery model.