Connecting Offshore Projects

Session B4 | Day 1, Tues 25 Oct, 16.15-17.30 | Charter 1, Ground Floor

This session will cover the current day realities of connecting offshore wind, wave or tidal stream projects.

• Chair: David Flood, Statkraft UK Limited
• Sally Shenton, E.ON Climate & Renewables and Barry Howarth, Transmission Capital Partners
• Duncan Stone, Department of Energy and Climate Change
• Andrew Hiorns, National Grid
• Stephanie McGregor, Ofgem

Chair: David Flood, Head of Offshore Wind UK, Statkraft UK Limited David is Head of Offshore Wind UK for Statkraft UK Limited. This role includes acting as the company’s senior management representative and Head of Electrical Systems for Forewind Limited, a consortium of four international energy companies which is the Zone Development Partner for Dogger Bank, the largest offshore zone awarded in The Crown Estate’s third licence round. He is responsible for ensuring timely, technically sound and commercially viable grid connections for at least 9,000MW of offshore wind generation capacity.

Speaker: Sally Shenton, Site Manager, E.ON Climate & Renewables Barry Howarth, Asset Manager, Transmission Capital Partners Living with an OFTO: Chapter One – Getting to Know You Transmission Capital Partners (TCP) purchased the grid connections assets of E.ON’s Robin Rigg offshore wind farm in early March 2011 for £65m. Deal closure marked the award of the first OFTO 20 year licence to TCP by OFGEM . The presentation will report on the experiences of the E.ON Robin Rigg offshore wind farm and the Transmission Capital Partners operations teams in the run up to deal closure and the months since. It will focus on the challenges faced on a project never originally designed with an OFTO in mind, the steps taken to try and ensure a smooth transition of grid connection ownership and the degree of success as judged from the first few months of post deal wind farm operation. Sally Shenton is Site Manager for E.ON’s Robin Rigg Offshore Windfarm. Sally has worked in the power industry for the last 20 years. Her career started at E.ON’s technology centre where she worked on coal and gas fired stations prior to moving into the reneweables sector. She was also involved in setting up a centralised asset management team for the UK generation fleet where she led on business improvement and a fleet-wide IS strategy. Sally has also worked on plants in India, Hungary, Portugal and Asia-pacific leading a programme to deliver improved safety, environmental and engineering performance. A recognised expert in the management of offshore transmission assets, Barry - who joined Transmission Capital in October 2010 - is responsible for managing the cables and substations owned by the Transmission Capital OFTOs. Prior to joining Transmission Capital, Barry had been at Manx Electricity Authority where for over seven years he was responsible for the England - Isle of Man cable: at 105km the longest AC transmission cable in the world.

Speaker: Duncan Stone, Head of Offshore Transmission, Department of Energy and Climate Change Update on Offshore Transmission Coordination Project Emerging thinking on future offshore transmission configurations and options to further incentivise the delivery of coordinated outcomes, in advance of a formal consultation on these issues later in the Winter. Duncan has worked at DECC since its creation, formerly in its Strategy Directorate. He has also worked in the Cabinet Office, Defra and European Commission since joining the civil service in 2003. Prior to that, Duncan qualified as a solicitor at a city law firm.

Speaker: Andrew Hiorns, Future Strategy Manager, National Grid Offshore Networks – The National Grid and Crown Estate Feasibility Study To date, offshore wind generation has been connected to shore by radial, ac connections. Whilst this is appropriate for generation that is relatively small and close to shore, this may not be so for larger, more distant generation. National Grid and the Crown Estate have carried out an assessment of alternative connection arrangements, considering the advantages and disadvantages of each from an overall economic, consenting, and deliverability point of view. This presentation will describe the options considered and the findings of the study. Andrew Hiorns has worked in the industry for over 30 years, mainly in the design and operation of the GB transmission system. He is currently responsible for the long term strategic planning of the network in England and Wales to ensure its optimal development in meeting the significant challenges anticipated in the coming years with significant involvement with the development of offshore networks. Andy was previously System Design Manager for National Grid, when he was responsible for the design of the network in response to specific generation connection applications. Andy is a Chartered Engineer, and a member of the IET.

Speaker: Stephanie McGregor, Director of Offshore Transmission, Ofgem OFTO’s Today & Tomorrow – What Does The Future Look Like? Since launching the OFTO regime Ofgem have granted two OFTO licences and appointed preferred bidders for seven other projects in the first tender round worth £1.2 billion. We have also commenced a second tender round for a further £1 billion in assets. This is only the beginning of the OFTO regime, we are still in the transitional phase – so what lessons have been learnt? What has changed? What does the future look like for OFTO projects & licences? Where next? As Director for Offshore Transmission, Stephanie leads the design and execution of competitive tenders for long term owner/operators for offshore transmission assets under in the UK – worth £2billion to date. Her work includes UK/European policy development for offshore transmission and preparation for future enduring tender rounds. With over 17 years in the design, development and delivery of infrastructure assets with in the UK and Australia, Stephanie has managed project delivery through traditional construction management as well as through PFI and PPP. Prior to joining Ofgem Stephanie led operational management and bidding on infrastructure projects for John Laing. Stephanie is a qualified town planner, having also studied business and sustainable development at Cambridge.