Projects launched to take on the challenges of large-scale renewables

The Offshore Connection project and the Network Capacity project are two seven month long investigations that will try and assess the solutions in the connection of offshore energy to the UK grid system and renewable electricity transmission and distribution capacity in the UK, respectively.

The ETI is a public-private partnership between six global industrial companies – BP, Shell, Eon, EDF Energy, Caterpillar and Rolls Royce – and the UK Government, . Since 2007, it has announced over £50 million of projects in offshore wind, marine, transport, distributed energy, carbon capture and storage and energy storage and distribution. The company is addressing the increasing role that large-scale offshore renewable energy developments will play in reducing CO2 emissions and the challenges in their development and installation.

Challenges envisioned in the connecting large-scale offshore energy to the UK grid system, includes the collection of electrical energy offshore from individual and multiple renewable energy farms, the transportation of the bulk electrical energy generated to the UK shoreline and the connection and integration of these offshore farms into the onshore power system.

The ETI believes the existing onshore transmission and distribution system has little spare capacity to cope with widespread changes in generation patterns and so the Network Capacity project will focus on identifying and assessing new technology solutions that have the potential to enhance renewable electricity transmission and distribution capacity in the UK.

ETI chief executive Dr David Clarke said: These projects will help the ETI make informed strategic decisions on the technology development and demonstration projects it could provide in this area as part of its Energy Storage and Distribution Programme.”