Investment budgets for grid connection of two offshore wind parks in the North Sea approved

Kurth: "Important contribution to investment security in renewable energy"

The Federal Network Agency took important decisions on supply and investment security today by for the first time approving investment budgets for the grid connection of two offshore wind parks in the North Sea. At issue were two projects of transpower stromübertragungs gmbh.

"With our approval of the investment budgets we have created a framework contributing substantially to a high degree of investmentand planning security. The timely integration of offshore wind parks is one of the important requirements for ensuring renewable energies are a success. The Federal Network Agency is equally committed to the aims of the Energy Act and the federal government's climate goals", explained the President of the Federal Network Agency, Matthias Kurth.

In view of today's approvals, transpower stromübertragungs gmbh can adapt its revenue cap, specified by the Federal Network Agency as part of its incentive regulation, by the capital costs of the approved investment projects from next year on.

"The publication of our position paper on the integration of offshore wind power projects already constituted one building block towards a swift, efficient and non-discriminatory implementation of offshore wind parks. Especially at times when climate goals are the subject of controversial discussions we feel that with our decisions it is important to set further positive signals in relation to investment security in renewable energy and to seek a sensible balance between the conflicting interests of low network charges on the one hand and necessary transmission investments for the dispatch of renewable energy on the other. The transmission system operators are now in a position to deal adequately on a safe basis with the system requirements arising from the desired promotion of of renewable energy", according to Mr. Kurth.

Under the Incentive regulation Ordinance, transmission system operators may apply for investment budgets for major projects. This may be the case where investments are needed to integrate new power plants into the system and to arrange for the transfer of energy from renewable sources, particularly by means of the connection of offshore wind parks. Grid access for such wind parks can cause investments costs in the tens of millions. In the years 2008 and 2009 the Federal Network Agency received about 480 applications for the approval of investment budgets totalling approximately € 13bn. The majority of the investments applied for worth roughly € 11bn were earmarked for the power sector. Of these, the larger part amounting to about € 9bn involved transmission system operators, and again roughly € 3bn of that sum were related to offshore projects.