Britain’s largest electricity transmission project, which could have the capacity to provide power for around 2m households and businesses, has been given the go-ahead by Ofgem.
The £3.4bn Eastern Green Link Two (EGL2), described as a subsea “superhighway,” would be designed to run for 436km under the North Sea between Yorkshire and North-East Scotland and carry 2GW of power.
A joint venture between National Grid and SSEN it would be the biggest single investment in electricity transmission infrastructure in Britain to date. Full construction is slated to begin later this year, and the project is expected to be operational by 2029.
EGL2 is the first of 26 energy projects in Ofgem’s fast-track new Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework.
The framework is designed to speed up the delivery of major energy projects and boost the amount of electricity offshore wind generates for British consumers.
Jonathan Brearley, Ofgem chief executive, said: “Ofgem is fully committed to supporting the government to meet its aims of getting clean power by 2030. Today’s announcement is a further step in putting the regulatory systems and processes in place to speed up network regulation to achieve its aim.
“ASTI accelerates approval times for projects such as EGL2 by up to two years. Streamlining the process does not mean blank cheques for developers as we are able to step in and make financial adjustments to maximise efficiency and consumer benefit.”
It is estimated that ASTI will deliver £1.5bn in savings by reducing the need to compensate generators asked to turn off production during times of high wind due to a lack of grid capacity.
On Tuesday, the energy regulator also gave the provisional green light to another Yorkshire green energy project involving upgrades to the local electricity network and the construction of over seven kilometres in overhead lines.
Some £294.8m is being proposed by Ofgem for the Yorkshire Green Energy Enablement (GREEN) project, although this is still subject to consultation.