UK energy regulator Ofgem said it has given the green light to a £3.4 billion funding package to build a proposed new subsea “superhighway” with an underground 436km cable between Peterhead in Aberdeenshire and Yorkshire to power up to 2 million homes across Britain.
Ofgem said Eastern Green Link 2 (EGL2) is the first of 26 projects to complete its new fast-track process to speed up sign-offs by up to two years under the Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment programme (ASTI).
EGL2 is a joint venture between SSEN Transmission and National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) and is expected to be the largest single investment in electricity transmission infrastructure in the UK to date.
The superhighway will deliver a 2GW high voltage electricity superhighway cable link between Peterhead and a new converter station Drax in North Yorkshire, which will help harness the potential of British offshore wind power.
Most of the cable will be under the North Sea from Sandshore Bay to Wilsthorpe, Yorkshire with the remaining 70km buried underground onshore to converter stations at either end of the cable to plug into national the grid and from there onto consumers from Yorkshire.
Full construction is expected to begin later this year and EGL2 is expected to be operational in 2029.
“ASTI slashes the time that clean offshore power is approved so gets to British consumers and businesses. The projects delivered via are vital to upgrade the energy system and allow more renewable energy to be brought onto the grid,” said Ofgem.
“This is a big step towards the new Government’s target of the national power grid being clean 2030 to reduce Britain’s reliance on volatile international gas markets with cleaner, cheaper, more secure wind energy
“Ofgem is required to upgrade the energy system at least possible cost to customers – with EGL2’s developers required to make £79m savings in its forecast expenditure.
“It is estimated ASTI will expand the national power network, reduce grid constraints and deliver an estimated £1.5 billion of savings by reducing the need to compensate generators asked to turn off production, during times of high wind, due to lack of grid capacity.”
Ofgem CEO Jonathan Brearley 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.”
Ofgem said it gave provisional approval to a sister scheme in March 2024, the proposed Eastern Green Link1 high voltage subsea cable to transport 2GW of homegrown wind generating electricity between Torness, East Lothian and Hawthorn Pit, County Durham, developed by NGET and SP Transmission, part of SP Energy Networks.
The vast majority of the 196km cable are subsea, with the remaining 20km of cables underground linking the cable the substations and convertor stations at either end.