Ireland’s Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) has published a framework for the country’s future offshore electricity transmission system, which includes appointing EirGrid as the Transmission System Operator (TSO) and the Transmission Asset Owner for Offshore Grid Assets.
Together with an associated policy for Ireland’s future offshore electricity transmission system which was approved by the government in April, the framework will provide for the development, operation and ownership of Ireland’s offshore electricity transmission system and facilitate the expansion of offshore wind energy to help the country meet its target of 5 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030.
The framework provides for a phased transition from a decentralised offshore transmission system model to a centralised model over the course of this decade, with the phases aligned with the country’s three scheduled offshore Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS) auctions. Within this transition, the ownership of offshore transmission system assets will be assigned to EirGrid, Ireland’s existing electricity transmission system operator.
In the first phase, which will coincide with the first offshore RESS auction, the developers of the offshore wind projects that are successful in the auction will develop the associated offshore transmission system requirement.
The second offshore RESS auction will see the imprementation of the second phase, which will see the development of the offshore transmission system being carried out by the project developers and/or EirGrid.
In the third phase, to correspond with the third offshore RESS auction, the offshore transmission system will be exclusively developed by EirGrid, with maritime areas in which renewables development may take place to be provided for by the second Offshore Renewable Energy Development Plan (OREDP II).
The designation of EirGrid as the system operator and asset owner of Ireland’s offshore electricity transmission system means that the ownership is resting with EirGrid at all stages of the phased transition, regardless of whether the grid has been developed by the individual offshore wind projects or by EirGrid.
Transmission system assets to be owned by EirGrid will include the high voltage transmission circuits and associated onshore and offshore transmission infrastructure connecting offshore generation sites to the existing onshore transmission system, as well as any necessary offshore reinforcements to accommodate electricity flows.
Irish government, which set the 5 GW offshore wind target in 2020, is also working on a new maritime planning bill that would remove the regulative and administrative challenges present under the current act and allow for faster realisation of offshore wind projects. The Maritime Area Planning (MAP) Bill will also establish a new agency, the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA), to regulate development in Ireland’s Maritime Area.