Offshore grid review must not delay Welsh wind projects

Welsh offshore wind projects must not be delayed by the government’s review of the offshore transmission networks, renewable developers have warned.

The opening session of the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee’s inquiry into grid capacity on Wednesday (16 March) heard concerns that network constraints threaten to hold back development of floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea off south Wales and Devon, which is seen as a prime opportunity for exploiting the emerging technology.

A government-led review is examining the creation of a common transmission infrastructure to bring electricity generated by offshore wind farms onshore rather than building bespoke point-to-point connections with the grid.

The Holistic Network Design being developed by National Grid Electricity System Operator as part of the review is focusing on the east coast of England where development of offshore transmission infrastructure has sparked a strong backlash from residents, the committee heard.

Rhys Wyn Jones, head of renewable, Cymru at RenewableUK said the offshore grid review is “vital” for the wider industry but should not prevent projects being brought forward in Wales.

He said: “Anything emerging from that offshore transmission network review should not delay floating offshore wind projects in the Celtic Sea because that could jeopardise the huge opportunities that these emerging technologies present.

“We don’t need to possibly further constrain development in the Celtic Sea by having grid becoming too much an onerous issue.

“We need to get that [review] right because a huge amount of generation needs connecting needs to be done in a strategic way. In terms of Wales, we must not preclude projects ready to apply for a CfD because it will hold us up even further.”

Tom Glover,  UK country chair of RWE, told the committee that he hoped the next stage of the offshore review should “hopefully” include the Celtic Sea.

“We need to do that for the Celtic Sea as well.”

In the meantime, he said that offshore wind projects in the Celtic Sea are being held up by onshore grid capacity problems in south Wales.

Glover said RWE had been offered a grid connection in Devon for 400MW of offshore wind it is developing in the Celtic Sea but would prefer to bring the electricity onshore near its 2.2GW gas-fired power station at Pembroke.

He said RWE had been told there is no grid capacity available in the main transmission line that runs across south Wales.

However, the wind farm would not overload the south Wales transmission line because the associated battery storage and RWE’s existing gas plant would load demand on the grid at different times rather than simultaneously, Glover said: “The likelihood of all three things happening is not very high because if it’s very windy we won’t put the gas station on and there is going to be excess power so we will be filling up the battery not discharging it.”

He also said Ofgem should allow anticipatory investment in network infrastructure prior to projects receiving CfDs and that they must be approved within the next “two to three years” in order to help meet the UK’s target to decarbonise the grid by 2035.

Jon O’Sullivan, director of onshore wind and solar at EDF Renewables, told the committee that the risk of stranded transmission assets is “pretty much zero”.

“If we can be bolder, now is the time,” he said.