The UK Government is taking steps towards establishing a future generation of offshore connection hubs through combining offshore wind and electricity interconnectors.
Published on 25 April, as part of an official response, the Government has announced its intention to strengthen legal and regulatory clarity over the licensing of future multi-purpose interconnectors (MPIs).
These assets will help reduce barriers to offshore wind development, bring down costs of projects by approximately 5-10%, compared to conventional interconnector projects, and minimise impacts on local communities in the future.
They will also potentially enable Britain to export excess cheap wind energy to neighbouring countries.
The current approach to designing and building offshore transmission was developed when offshore wind was a nascent sector.
However, with an increased ambition to generate 50GW of offshore wind by 2030, constructing individual point to point connections for each offshore wind farm may not provide the most efficient approach, and could become a major barrier to delivery given the considerable environmental and local impacts.
BEIS will continue to work with Ofgem to develop the legal and regulatory frameworks necessary for the timely deployment of MPIs.
Ofgem is launching an investment window for an MPI pilot project in mid-2022 with the prospect of the first MPI project being operational in the latter part of this decade.
UK energy minister Greg Hands (pictured) said: “We recognise that there is currently a growing impact on the coastal communities which host offshore wind infrastructure.
“As we power up our plans to become more independent, with growing supply of clean energy, we need to minimise local impacts.
“With the potential for huge savings, multi-purpose interconnectors could ease offshore wind development, by establishing a future generation of offshore connection hubs.
“I look forward to working with independent regulator Ofgem, as we explore allowing clusters of offshore wind farms to connect all in one, and directly into electricity interconnectors which could also enable Britain to sell excess clean energy to other countries.”
Today, offshore wind and interconnectors operate alongside each other, connecting to the shore individually, but MPIs, in future, will enable offshore wind and interconnection to work together as a combined asset.
Recent studies have shown that an increase in interconnector capacity upwards of 18GW is needed to help the UK meet a target of 50GW of offshore wind generation by 2030 and increase security of supply.
The Offshore Transmission Network Review (OTNR) was established to address the barriers for increasing our offshore capacity and integration into the GB grid, as well as to consider how best to facilitate MPIs, which offer benefits by combining market-to-market interconnection and offshore transmission.
As part of this, the Government has published its response to the Multi-Purpose Interconnector section of its Offshore Transmission Network Review (OTNR) “Enduring Regime and MPI” consultation which launched in September 2021.
A separate Government response addressing the Enduring Regime section of the consultation, will be published later this year.
Findings from National Grid Electricity System Operator indicate that adopting an integrated approach to offshore development by 2025, including use of MPIs, could reduce lifetime transmission costs by around £3bn.