The North Sea Wind Power Hub (NSWPH) consortium is seeking assistance in structured discussions with policymakers to realise the first large scale European electricity system for offshore wind.
TenneT Netherlands, TenneT Germany, Energinet, Gasunie, and the Port of Rotterdam joined forces to develop a ”hub-and-spoke” concept, where offshore wind farms will connect to one or several hub islands via alternating current cables.
The power is then converted into direct current electricity by converters on the hub islands before being exported by a series of interconnectors (the spokes) to connecting North Sea countries.
Through this tender , the consortium intends to procure support services to assist in structuring, initiation, and management of structured discussions with policymakers to realise the first hub-and-spoke project in the early 2030s.
The overall goal of the services requested is to support the consortium in delivering on the topical agenda, and maximise the success of it, through the development and execution of a structured process to establish political consensus and prepare timely decision making on key issues to facilitate international agreements to support cross-border, cross-sector offshore wind projects after 2030.
The successful candidate will also manage a transparent process of discussion preparation, collection, and integration of feedback and preparation for decision making; as well as develop or manage the procurement of external services for the development of discussion papers on key topics.
All activities aim to facilitate public commitment in the form of a project-specific Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) or intergovernmental agreements between countries.
A new approach to offshore wind connection and grid integration is required, both from a techno-economical as well as from a market and regulatory perspective, the consortium said.
This is due to the scale of the offshore wind roll-out required to meet the Paris Agreement climate targets (~150-450 GW), the short time window for realisation (30 years) and the unfolding energy transition as a whole (form fossil to net-zero emission).