Cheaper Grid Connection for Shetland

20th November 2011

The Shetland Times ran a story on 16th November 2011 that shows the offshore energy industry is making leaps and bounds towards interconnecting the country.

Change of plan makes windfarm grid connection much cheaper.

The financial risks of pursuing the Viking Energy windfarm have reduced with the interconnector cable from Shetland becoming cheaper and requiring less public money to be put up as security.

A change of plan by National Grid means the 600 MegaWatt Shetland subsea cable will not travel to the Scottish mainland alone but will connect instead into an offshore transmission hub off the Moray Firth, shared by many other large renewable power generators, including offshore wind and wave farms from Orkney, the Pentland Firth, the Moray Firth and the giant Beatrice offshore windfarm.

Viking does not have to contribute towards the £300-400 million cost of the cable, which will be paid for by UK electricity users. But it is required to underwrite the financial risk to National Grid in case it pulls out after having booked a connection.

But such is National Grid's confidence now that large renewable projects will all go ahead once they get government approval it is proposing to slash the size of the guarantee required by developers to just 10 per cent of the cable cost, once development consent is gained.

See the full story at Shetland Times
http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2011/11/16/change-of-plan-makes-windfarm-grid-connection-much-cheaper

Another Story on Energy from Shetland was in fishnewseu.com

Shetland marine energy partnership launched
A FORWARD looking private, public and community sector partnership which will drive the growth of marine energy in Shetland was announced yesterday at the inaugural Dynamic Shetland green energy event.
European energy company Vattenfall, the Shetland Islands Council and the Shetland Charitable Trust (SCT), with support from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) signed a memorandum of understanding in Lerwick to develop a roadmap for ocean energy development around the Islands. The initial focus will be on the development of a ten megawatt pilot wave project already proposed off the west coast of Shetland.
The partnership will also gain invaluable first hand experience of developing a wave farm off Shetland's coast. This experience will inform a strategy to enable the whole Shetland community to capture the economic and social benefits of its sizeable ocean energy potential and the planned electricity cable to the Scottish mainland.

Full story at -
http://www.fishnewseu.com/latest-news/scottish/7085-shetland-marine-energy-partnership-launched.html