Ofgem approves £3.4bn for ‘superhighway’ cable between Scotland and Yorkshire
Eastern Green Link 2. Image courtesy SSEN Transmission
Ofgem has approved a £3.4 billion ($4.4 billion) funding package to build a proposed new subsea and underground 500km cable between Scotland and Yorkshire in the UK.
Eastern Green Link 2 (EGL 2) will deliver a 2GW high voltage electricity ‘superhighway’ cable link between Peterhead in Aberdeenshire and Drax in North Yorkshire, which will help harness the potential of British offshore wind power.
The project is being jointly developed by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Transmission (SSENT) and National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) with construction planned to start in 2024 and the new connection due to be operational by 2029.
Most of the cable (around 436km) will be under the North Sea with the remaining 70km buried underground onshore.
Two converter stations, one at each end of the cable, are planned to help feed the electricity transported by the cable into the grid and from there onto consumers.
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As part of its mission to upgrade the energy system at the least possible cost to customers, Ofgem scrutinised the developers’ proposal and identified over £79 million ($101.1 million) of savings which have been cut from the project costs without impacting delivery or quality.
Commenting in a release was Ofgem’s CEO Jonathan Brearley:
“Ofgem is fully committed to supporting the government to meet its aims of getting clean power by 2030. Today’s announcement is a further step in putting the regulatory systems and processes in place to speed up network regulation to achieve its aim.
“Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) accelerates approval times for projects such as Eastern Green Link 2 (EGL2) by up to two years. However, streamlining the process does not mean blank cheques for developers as we are able to step in and make financial adjustments to maximise efficiency and consumer benefit.”
The funding approval is one of the first to come from Ofgem’s Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework, which is fast-tracking 26 major connection projects to boost grid.
ASTI accelerates the funding process by up to two years, allowing electricity generated by offshore wind to be delivered to British consumers sooner.
