The Draghi report on EU Competitiveness from September 2024 states that regional planning needs to be strengthened, with reference to differences between European regions and considering a ‘one-size-fits-all’- solution unrealistic. Regional synergies are expected to ameliorate challenges and contribute to an acceleration of infrastructure projects, thus bringing European decarbonization and energy security a step further.

To deliver on this need, Northern Seas Transmission System Operators (TSOs) for electricity jointly studied an economically efficient and viable way forward for offshore infrastructure for the 2040 time-horizon. The approach focuses on identifying a promising set of offshore hybrid interconnection projects, as this special cross-border-project-type requires close collaboration across multiple borders. Collaboration relates not only to technical questions, but also to financing and potential cost-sharing across the sea basin. Discussions on the latter have intensified after the European Commission published their guidance on this topic in summer 2024.

The Northern Seas TSOs wish to provide a useful basis for joint discussion between the region’s governments and TSOs. Thus, joint planning builds on and complements existing Pan-European- and national plans, testing a variety of potential options. After a short description of the methodology applied, two example topologies are presented and discussed.