Four German transmission system operators (TSOs) have presented the second version of the Offshore-Network Developement Plan 2030 (Offshore-Netzentwicklungsplan – O-NEP).
50Hertz, Amprion, TenneT, and TransnetBW submitted the first draft version of O-NEP to the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) in January.
Subsequently, the four TSOs opened a month-long public consultation which resulted in no changes to the initially proposed additional transmission capacity; however, some changes have been made to the proposed length of new offshore connections and estimated costs.
The three 2030 scenarios in the first draft projected that the German offshore grid connection system will be expanded by additional 2,300 kilometres of new connections and reach a total transmission capacity of 7.4GW. The second version of O-NEP now projects that 2,777 kilometres of new offshore connections will be added by 2030.
The investment needed for this upgrade was estimated at around EUR 16 billion in the first draft, and has now been raised to EUR 17 billion.
The 2035 scenario projects 3,702 kilometers of new connections and an overall capacity of 11.4GW. The first draft estimated that the investment needed for the 2035 scenario was EUR 22 billion, which has now been increased to EUR 24 billion.
With the O-NEP 2030, the TSOs are providing the fourth and final O-NEP which will subsequently be replaced by the so-called “surface development plan”.