TenneT’s North Sea Grid Sees 29 TWh of Offshore Wind Transmitted in 2022

January 30, 2023, by Adnan Memija

The transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT has transmitted around 29 TWh from the Dutch and German North Sea in 2022, which is an increase compared to the previous year.

TenneT transmitted approximately 21.13 TWh of wind energy from the German North Sea to land in 2022, whereas in the Netherlands, 7.91 TWh was fed into the grid.

This means that the annual demand of around nine million households can be covered with green energy at 3,250 kWh annual consumption/household, TenneT said.

In Germany, the annual result in 2022 is four per cent above the previous year’s value which was 20.3 TWh, according to the TSO.

Total onshore and offshore wind power generation in Germany reached 125.28 TWh in 2022 (previous year 114.37 TWh) and the share of North Sea electricity was around 16.9 per cent, just under one percentage point below the previous year (17.8 per cent).

The capacity of offshore wind farms in the Dutch North Sea was 3,220 MW on the reporting date of 31.12.2022. In the Netherlands, TenneT’s offshore grid connections amount to 3,757 MW (the previous year 1,503 MW). These transmitted 7.91 TWh in 2022 compared to the previous year which was 4.71 TWh.

The strong increase compared to the previous year is mainly due to the commissioning of TenneT’s offshore grid connection systems Hollands Kust (zuid) Alpha and Beta as well as corresponding additions to the offshore wind farms in 2022, TenneT said.

“The North Sea has been reliably and stably supplying a large share of wind power in the Netherlands and Germany for years. It is therefore right and important to tap the potential of the North Sea as a wind power source for the Netherlands, Germany and Europe even better in the future”, said Tim Meyerjürgens, TenneT COO.

In the German North Sea, the maximum value of feed-in capacity from offshore wind farms in 2022 was measured at 6,255 MW on 22 November, TenneT said. The capacity expansion of offshore wind farms in the German North Sea was 7,036 MW on the reporting date of 31 December 2022, 357 MW higher than in the previous year (6,679 MW).

TenneT’s offshore transmission capacity is 7,132 MW in the German North Sea. Wind Turbines in the Baltic Sea (50Hertz grid area) generated 3.62 TWh in 2022 (previous year 3.7 TWh), so Germany’s total offshore generation in this period was 24.75 TWh, of which the North Sea was 21.13 TWh.

New Area Development Plan for 2023

In accordance with the previous specifications of the Network Development Plan (NEP) and the Area Development Plan (FEP), TenneT began planning and implementing the BalWin1, BalWin2, and BalWin3 projects in Germany as early as 2020.

In the meantime, the expansion targets for offshore wind energy have been significantly increased by the German government to at least 30 GW in 2030 and at least 40 GW in 2035.

This change was already apparent in the first drafts of the FEP, so that TenneT took this into account in advance and began planning the further offshore grid connections required to achieve the new expansion targets for offshore wind energy.

Last week, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency published the final FEP 2023.

In this, the project sponsorship of the TenneT projects BalWin1 and BalWin2 was transferred to Amprion in agreement with the Federal Network Agency and at the same time assigned to other onshore grid connection points than previously.

The changed project allocation and the additional offshore grid connections will also be reflected in the first draft of the NDP 2037/2045 (2023) expected in March 2023.

In addition to the four 900 MW offshore projects currently under construction, TenneT is also responsible for the realisation of the following six new offshore grid connections, each with a transmission capacity of 2 GW, by 2031: BalWin3, BalWin4, LanWin1, LanWin2, LanWin4, and LanWin5.