Corporate Social Responsibility

Grid management at sea

TenneT's commitment to sustainability is entirely in line with current government policy, which has set the target of deriving 20% of the Netherlands' energy from sustainable sources by 2020. One of the strategies the Netherlands is focusing on to achieve this target is the construction of wind farms in the North Sea. TenneT wants to connect these offshore wind farms efficiently to the transmission grid. This is also the desire of the Lower House, as reflected in a motion adopted in 2008 which calls on the government to amend the Electricity Act 1998 in order to give TenneT responsibility for connecting all the offshore wind farms to the existing electricity grid, including laying transmission cables along the sea bed. To further flesh out the plans for an offshore high-voltage grid, TenneT and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are exploring the options in terms of legislation, economic considerations, technology, physical planning and connection systems. The Ministry is currently looking at how the Electricity Act 1998 would need to be amended to accommodate these plans. The costs and technical requirements are also being studied. TenneT is providing the Ministry with information and is making recommendations as to where the law needs to be changed to enable the construction and operation of an offshore high-voltage grid.

The cable connecting the turbine farms with the onshore high-voltage grid will need to be in place by the time the turbine farms are commissioned. In anticipation of a possible statutory task, TenneT started preparing for the construction of an offshore grid in 2008, so that it can get off to a flying start as soon as it is instructed to do so. In the year under review TenneT also made a start on the planning procedures for laying electricity cables in the North Sea. The aim is to select the most sustainable and cost-effective variant.