German transmission system operators (TSOs) have issued the first draft of the Grid Development Plan (GDP) 2030, which includes expanded offshore wind capacity scenarios.
According to 50Hertz, Amprion, TenneT and TransnetBW, the expansion targets have been increased to 17GW in scenarios B and C 2030, 20GW in scenario A 2030 and 23.2GW by 2035, compared to the 15GW by 2030 target set in the Renewables Act.
The targets require additional offshore grid in the length of 1.924km in scenario B 2030 with a transmission capacity of some 6.4GW and a length of 3,439km for scenario B 2035, with a transmission capacity of circa 12.1GW.
Based on the approved scenario framework, the Baltic Sea will house 2,2GW in all scenarios, with the North Sea anticipated to accommodate 17,8GW in the A 2030 scenario, 14,8GW in the B and C 2030 scenario and 21GW in the B 2035 scenario.
The estimated investment volume for the offshore grid is approximately EUR 18 billion for scenarios B 2030 and C 2030, EUR 24 billion for scenario A 2030 and some EUR 27 billion for scenario B 2035, the German TSOs said.
According to the draft, the results from an additional sensitivity calculation show that an increase in feed-in by 1GW from offshore wind from areas in the Baltic Sea that are easy to develop can be accommodated by grid infrastructure that has already been planned, resulting in additional flexibility for the political expansion target in 2030 with a bandwidth of 17GW to 20GW.
Interested parties are free to submit comments on the GDP until 4 March, which will be taken into consideration for the second draft due to be submitted to the Federal Network Agency for evaluation.