Transmission system operators (TSOs) TenneT and National Grid Ventures (NGV) have signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to advance LionLink, a hybrid interconnector linking the UK and the Netherlands via a future offshore wind farm in the Dutch North Sea.
The agreement sets out how the two partners will jointly develop LionLink towards a final investment decision (FID), including arrangements on procurement, governance, and planning, while also aiming to increase transparency on project costs ahead of construction.
LionLink is designed to integrate cross-border electricity interconnection with offshore wind by establishing a direct connection between the two countries through a grid link to the planned Nederwiek 3 offshore wind farm. According to the developers, this approach will maximise the use of offshore wind, provide additional system flexibility, and reduce the overall amount of required offshore infrastructure.
The LionLink project was launched in April 2023, when the Netherlands and the UK unveiled their plan to build the interconnector, a first-of-its-kind electricity link to connect offshore wind between the two countries via interconnections.
Shortly after this, National Grid Lion Link Limited applied for the electricity interconnector with the UK energy market regulator Ofgem, requesting a licence that would authorise it to participate in the operation of the interconnector in Great Britain. In the Netherlands, TenneT contracted GEOxyz in 2023 to carry out geophysical and geotechnical surveys for the export cable route for the Nederwiek 3 offshore wind farm and in May 2024, Next Geosolutions kicked off a cable route survey for the LionLink line in the UK.
At the beginning of last year, Dutch Climate and Green Growth Minister Sophie Hermans included LionLink in the country’s latest Offshore Wind Energy Development Framework. In the UK, LionLink expects to apply for the Development Consent Order (DCO) with the Planning Inspectorate in 2026 and to receive a decision in 2027.
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National Grid Updates Plan for UK-Netherlands Interconnection via Nederwiek 3 Offshore Wind Farm Grid Connection The interconnector, expected to be commissioned in the early 2030s, is planned to have a capacity of up to 2 GW, enough to supply up to 2.5 million households, according to the TSOs.
While the companies move forward with LionLink, their existing BritNed interconnector is marking 15 years of operation. Since entering service in 2011, the 1 GW subsea link has enabled nearly 93 TWh of electricity trading between Great Britain and the Netherlands.
Over the past five years, BritNed has exchanged enough electricity annually to power around 1.4 million households. The 260-kilometre interconnector remains a key part of both countries’ energy systems and has generated around EUR 1 billion in auction revenues on the Dutch side during its operational lifetime, TenneT said in a press release on 1 April.