Site selection
Site selection
In July 2022, The Crown Estate announced its intention to enter into Agreements for Lease with RWE, giving seabed development rights for DBS East and DBS West. A consultation around the Habitats Regulations Assessment process set the limits of the offshore sites for the projects.
Site selection for the components of the projects began including the offshore and onshore export cable corridors, a cable landfall location and a substation location for both projects that would connect the wind farms to the transmission network, usually referred to as the national grid.
It is anticipated that each of the Dogger Bank South projects will be served by its own project specific infrastructure, but cable corridors, landfall locations and substation sites will be shared where possible to minimise impacts on communities and the environment.
How has the connection point to the National Electricity Transmission System been chosen?
National Grid ESO, the UK electrical system operator, has completed the Holistic Network Design (HND) process.
The aim of the process was to design a coordinated solution for the national grid which takes account of planned offshore wind expansion in a way which is economic and efficient, deliverable and operable and which considers environmental impacts and the effects of infrastructure developments on local communities.
Through the HND process, National Grid ESO considered several potential grid connection locations for the Dogger Bank South projects.
In early Summer 2022, National Grid ESO published the results from the HND process and determined that connections to the national grid for both DBS West and DBS East would be made in the vicinity of a new National Grid substation located near Creyke Beck. This area has consequently been the focus of landfall, offshore and onshore cable corridor and substation site selection work undertaken by RWE.
In order to connect the electricity generated in the offshore wind farms to the National Electricity Transmission System further onshore cable connections are required between the DBS substations and a new National Grid substation in the vicinity of Creyke Beck. The exact location of the new National Grid substation was not confirmed at the time of printing however the likely location of the new National Grid substation and the area of search for the onward connection from the DBS substations is shown in the figure map above.
