Renewables and the Grid – Challenges and Solutions A personal perspective

Cameron Smith Country Manager (Scotland), Mainstream Renewable Power

Full Load Hours/Year

The opportunity

• Richest marine energy resource in the world

• Sufficient to provide all of EU’s electricity requirements

• Technically efficient and commercial competitive to exploit

• Predictable fuel cost• Indigenous• Independent of external

political influences• Clean

Key Issue – Grid, a Personal Perspective• NGRID “Opportunities” (....for renewable connection)

There is hope....

• Crown Estate Round 3 – has galvanised players

• Consensus -• Step 1 – UK strategic

investment• Step 2 Large-scale

interconnected grid for marine renewables in the Uk and Europe

Note: This map represents The Crown Estate’s initial view of locations for potential zones for the development of offshore windfarms. It will be subject to revision. The zones do not in any way reflect the output of BERR’s SEA.

Potential Round 3 Development Zones

UK

Territorial Sea Limit

Legend

Potential Round 3 Development ZonesPotential Round 3 Development Zones

UKUK

Territorial Sea LimitTerritorial Sea Limit

Legend

Step 1 - Significant Recent Developments

• ENSG – vision for upgrades - Bootsraps

• Strategic , Proactive investment.

• DECC recognition that “Up to £15 billion of new offshore grid needed to connect Rounds 1, 2 & 3 offshore wind”

• HVDC techology

Step 2 - Interconnection

“The value of an offshore grid...lies in its contribution for increased security of supply, its function for the aggregation of dispatch of power from offshore wind farms, and in its role as a facilitator for power exchange and trade between regions and power systems.”

A North Sea Electricity Grid Revolution 2007Greenpeace-3E

Offshore grids – not new

Challenges ahead• The economics

– the accelerated development of an offshore grid will require a Europe wide support scheme (EU Grid Incentive)

• The technology – VSC HVDC - very low electrical losses and meshed connections

But - development work required to scale up VSC HVDC technology

– a common set of standards must be developed for connecting HVDC platforms (avoid VHS/Betamax)

• The regulation– Create a European operator who will run (not own) the network

interconnectors (The “Airbus” approach)