Ofgem Awards £2 Billion Funding for Eastern Green Link 1 Subsea Cable

The UK’s Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), on Nov. 15, approved a £2 billion funding package to construct the Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL 1) high-voltage subsea cable between Northern England and Scotland. The 196 km cable can transfer 2 gigawatts (GW) of electricity generated by wind farms between Torness, East Lothian, and Hawthorn Pit, County Durham. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) stated in its Clean Power 2030 Report that the project could result in over £870 million in annual savings from decreasing recompense toward wind energy producers who have to shut down power generation due to insufficient grid capacity during extreme winds.

The project is a joint venture between developers Scotland’s SP Energy Networks and England’s National Grid Electricity Transmission. Ofgem identified over £43 million in project costs that would be cut without compromising performance.

The majority of the cable, around 174 km, would be subsea with the remaining part underground to connect the cable to substations and converter stations in Scotland and England. Once operational, the EGL 1 could deliver power to around 2 million households.

EGL 1 is one of 26 projects that fall under the Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework which is a key step in meeting the UK government’s 2030 target to build 50 GW of offshore wind. The framework which has a portfolio with a combined total of £20billion, streamlines the regulatory process for crucial power transmission projects.  The ASTI process fast-tracks crucial projects by providing developers access to upfront funding to secure supply chain contracts as soon as possible.

Earlier this year, Ofgem announced a provisional £3.4 billion funding package for the second EGL project, EGL 2. Eastern Green Link 2 is a 500 km high voltage subsea cable between Peterhead in Aberdeenshire and Drax in North Yorkshire with a transmission capacity of 2 GW. Similar to EGL 1, EGL 2 also follows the ASTI framework to fast-track the project.