Developing a Transnational Electricity Infrastructure Offshore: Design, Operations and Regulatory Solutions

This research aims at identifying the options for designing an offshore electricity grid and the legal instruments to create such a grid. It will present the legal, technological and market considerations which coastal states, EU and national legislators and policy makers should take into account when planning and weighing their grid design options. The research takes the North Sea area as an example. However, the outcome of the research has a wider impact as it can be applied to other offshore areas as well. The research focuses on the need to develop offshore wind energy and thus the need to develop an offshore grid to transport the electricity to shore. The researchers will examine four different options for developing such a grid, varying from a national option, to a bilateral option, a bilateral-multilateral option, and finally a multilateral option. The latter option involves the construction of a closed ring structure. The legal qualification of these grids may vary and have to be properly defined. From the viewpoint of technology, policy and law are boundary conditions for what can be built in the real world. On the other hand, from the legal viewpoint, technology is what drives innovation and adaptation to the legal framework. An iterative approach between the legal and technical frameworks is used. An assessment tool is developed, which will deliver quantitative results for each of the four technical options. These results will be used to adjust the legal framework, thus ensuring an adequate development of a (trans)national offshore grid.