A £3.4 billion funding bundle has been awarded to construct a proposed new subsea and underground 500km cable between Scotland and Yorkshire which may energy as much as 2 million houses, and expedite the supply of vitality generated through offshore wind within the North Sea.
Jap Inexperienced Hyperlink 2 (EGL2) is the primary of 26 tasks to finish a fast-track course of to safe funding via Ofgem’s new ASTI framework, which the vitality regulator mentioned accelerates the funding course of by as much as two years, permitting electrical energy generated by offshore wind to be delivered to customers sooner.
EGL2 will ship a 2GW excessive voltage electrical energy ‘superhighway’ cable hyperlink between Peterhead in Aberdeenshire and Drax in North Yorkshire, which can assist harness the potential of British offshore wind energy. A lot of the cable (round 436km) shall be underneath the North Sea with the remaining 70km buried underground onshore. Two converter stations, one at every finish of the cable, are deliberate to assist feed the electrical energy transported by the cable into the grid and from there onto customers.
As a part of its declared mission to improve the vitality system a minimum of potential value to prospects, Ofgem mentioned it scrutinised the builders’ proposal and recognized over £79m of financial savings which have been minimize from the undertaking prices with out impacting supply or high quality.
By boosting grid capability, ASTI tasks will open up entry to homegrown wind vitality, and ship an estimated £1.5billion of financial savings, mentioned Ofgem, by decreasing the necessity to compensate mills who’re at the moment requested to show off manufacturing, throughout occasions of excessive wind, attributable to lack of grid capability.
Jonathan Brearley, Ofgem CEO, mentioned: “Ofgem is absolutely dedicated to supporting the federal government to fulfill its goals of getting clear energy by 2030. At the moment’s announcement is an extra step in placing the regulatory techniques and processes in place to hurry up community regulation to realize its purpose.
“Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) accelerates approval times for projects such as Eastern Green Link 2 (EGL2) by up to two years. However, streamlining the process does not mean blank cheques for developers as we are able to step in and make financial adjustments to maximise efficiency and consumer benefit.”
Work on the undertaking is anticipated to start later this yr and to be full by 2029.
Responding to the announcement, Lawrence Slade, Chief Government of Vitality Networks Affiliation (ENA) which represents the UK’s electrical energy community operators mentioned: “This is really welcome news from Ofgem. To move us forward towards clean power will require the biggest upgrade to the grid in decades. In turn these projects will unlock jobs, secure work for contractors and suppliers, and ultimately mean more secure energy supplies in the future. This is a crucial part of that jigsaw.”
Different tasks within the ASTI cohort embrace the Yorkshire Inexperienced Vitality Enablement (GREEN) undertaking, for which Ofgem has introduced a proposed funding allowance of £294.8m. GREEN includes a proposed improve to the native electrical energy community to assist transport vitality generated by Scottish and North Sea windfarms to customers.
