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 through a future offshore wind farm within the Dutch North Sea.
The settlement units out how the 2 companions will collectively develop LionLink in direction of a remaining funding resolution (FID), together with preparations on procurement, governance, and planning, whereas additionally aiming to extend transparency on undertaking prices forward of development.
LionLink is designed to combine cross-border electrical energy interconnection with offshore wind by establishing a direct connection between the 2 nations by means of a grid hyperlink to the deliberate Nederwiek 3 offshore wind farm. According to the builders, this method will maximise the usage of offshore wind, present extra system flexibility, and scale back the general quantity of required offshore infrastructure.
The LionLink undertaking was launched in April 2023, when the Netherlands and the UK unveiled their plan to construct the interconnector, a first-of-its-kind electrical energy hyperlink to attach offshore wind between the 2 nations through interconnections.
Shortly after this, National Grid Lion Link Limited utilized for the electrical energy interconnector with the UK vitality market regulator Ofgem, requesting a licence that might authorise it to take part within the operation of the interconnector in Great Britain. In the Netherlands, TenneT contracted GEOxyz in 2023 to hold 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 within the UK.
At the start of final yr, Dutch Climate and Green Growth Minister Sophie Hermans included LionLink within the nation’s newest Offshore Wind Energy Development Framework. In the UK, LionLink expects to use for the Development Consent Order (DCO) with the Planning Inspectorate in 2026 and to obtain a call in 2027.
The interconnector, anticipated to be commissioned within the early 2030s, is deliberate to have a capability of as much as 2 GW, sufficient to provide as much as 2.5 million households, in line with the TSOs.
While the businesses transfer ahead with LionLink, their present BritNed interconnector is marking 15 years of operation. Since getting into service in 2011, the 1 GW subsea hyperlink has enabled almost 93 TWh of electrical energy buying and selling between Great Britain and the Netherlands.
Over the previous 5 years, BritNed has exchanged sufficient electrical energy yearly to energy round 1.4 million households. The 260-kilometre interconnector stays a key a part of each nations’ vitality methods and has generated round EUR 1 billion in public sale revenues on the Dutch facet throughout its operational lifetime, TenneT stated in a press launch on 1 April.
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