TenneT proposes concrete offshore wind, hybrid projects steps to EU, German, Dutch governments

In its recent update on offshore wind power production in Germany, TenneT mentioned it had made proposals to the European Union and the Dutch and German governments “to create an integrated energy system approach to the international development of offshore wind energy”.

Offshore Energy contacted TenneT to find out more about the proposals which also call for, i.a., an integrated approach to grid development that would involve large-scale flexibility and aligning with the gas grid.

According to the transmission system operator (TSO), with the right policies and rules in place, first “hub-and-spoke” projects with a standardised hub size of 10-16 GW could be rolled out in the next decade.

TenneT now recommended to the EU and the Member States that an Intergovernmental Agreement should be signed, which would encompass location and scope of a first hybrid hub-and-spoke project.

The solution combines offshore wind farm grid connection and cross-border interconnections. TenneT’s proposed hub-and-spoke projects – North Sea Wind Power Hubs (NSWPH) – could employ power-to-gas technologies on the artificial hub islands to convert offshore wind-generated power into hydrogen, which would then be exported through new and existing gas pipelines.

The right political and regulatory framework would also allow for having the first WindConnector project in the North Sea before 2030, according to TenneT. WindConnector, just like the hub-and-spoke infrastructure, can both transmit electricity generated by offshore wind farms and interconnect electricity markets of different countries.

For the development of cost-efficient WindConnectors, there should be a technical precondition of aligning high voltage direct current (HVDC) technology and voltage level (525 kV), TenneT told the governments.

When it comes to offshore wind expansion, the TSO proposes a joint agreement on targets for 2030, and for every five-year period after that, until 2050.

The aforementioned integrated energy system approach to international offshore wind development should include tailor-made arrangements, as well as regulation that would facilitate the deployment of hybrid projects.

In the short term, a political decision by the EU and the concerned states should be made to develop the far North Seas in a cost-effective and internationally coordinated manner, TenneT recommends. This should be done with looking through an integrated energy system perspective, taking into account grid connection, interconnection, and onshore transmission grid integration.

TenneT also said the governments should assess the concept of offshore bidding zones for the mid- and long-term, further adding that this concept could enable efficient integration of large-scale offshore wind in the onshore electricity system. The company also called for coordinating wind farm zone development on an international level.

Furthermore, the TSO recommends incentives to be put in place to internationalise national projects, and that the available funds should be increased to support multinational offshore wind projects.

The company further called for a preparation of an Intergovernmental Agreement on minimum investment commitments up to 2050, with a precise timetable and tenders with specified capacity.

When it comes to the offshore grid, the TSO advised anticipatory investments should be enabled so that, for example, space on new offshore converter platforms could be reserved to allow for connecting them to an offshore grid at a later time. TenneT also proposes a North Seas Regulatory Market Design package that should be developed by the European Commission.

“Alongside the standardisation of the HVDC technology that will be used in the future, we also need an internationally coordinated planning approach for diverse processes from spatial planning to regulation, as well as the issues of electricity market design and economic investment security”, said TenneT’s COO Tim Meyerjürgens.