Statement on OCSS
National Grid Electricity Transmission (Sea Link), North Falls (Offshore Wind Farm) and Five Estuaries (Offshore Wind Farm) have been working together to explore the potential for offshore coordination as part of the Offshore Transmission Network Review (OTNR) “Early Opportunities” workstream. The projects, acting together in a consortium led by North Falls, were awarded funding by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) through the Offshore Coordination Support Scheme (OCSS) in December 2023.
On 28 March 2024, the consortium submitted a high-level feasibility study that formed the first step of the grant funding agreement. The study assessed the feasibility of a coordinated offshore connection specifically: the capital costs; building blocks; construction and commissioning methodologies and overall programme associated with a coordinated solution.
The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has reviewed this study, amongst other information and has decided not to grant further funding to the consortium. The feasibility study identified that coordination is technically feasible however, it also identified:
- an increase in capital costs of up to £890m
- constraint costs associated with an outage on Sea Link of over £500m*
- a programme delay for North Falls and Five Estuaries of up to five years.
Given the significant extra costs and the negative impact on the delivery timeline of connecting more renewables to the UK energy system, especially considering the government’s commitment to quadruple offshore wind and fully decarbonise the UK’s electricity system by 2030, the consortium supports the Secretary of State’s decision and will not be further pursuing a coordinated offshore connection. We would like to thank DESNZ for its continued engagement throughout the grant term.
*This figure is attributed to the constraint costs associated with an outage on Sea Link in 2032/33 only.
