EirGrid is engaged in the latest phase of public consultation for the Powering Up Offshore – South Coast programme, seeking feedback on emerging best performing options for the construction of the new transmission grid infrastructure required to bring electricity generated by offshore wind farms into Ireland’s national grid.
The consultation focuses on the new electricity infrastructure needed to connect Tonn Nua, the first maritime area detailed in Government’s South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan for Offshore Renewable Energy.
Located off the Waterford coast, it is envisaged that wind farms in the Tonn Nua area, also known as Maritime Area A, will deliver approximately 900 megawatts of offshore renewable energy, enough to power almost one million homes and support Ireland’s longer-term climate and renewable energy ambitions.
“While EirGrid is not responsible for generating electricity or building wind farms, we are responsible for connecting electricity generation infrastructure, such as offshore and onshore wind farms, into our national electricity grid,” says EirGrid head of public engagement Sinéad Dooley.
RM Block
The Powering Up Offshore – South Coast project will involve the construction of two offshore substation platforms located within Maritime Area A; offshore transmission cables connecting the offshore substations to landfall locations; new onshore substations; connections between landfalls and new onshore substations by underground cables; and loop-in connections to the existing electricity transmission network from the new substations by either underground cables or overhead lines.
The 12-week consultation, running until December 8th, presents potential landfall zones, offshore transmission cable corridors, offshore substation zones, grid connection subzones and onshore transmission cable route corridors in counties Cork and Wexford.
According to Dooley, the consultation is the fourth step in the organisation’s six-step approach to grid development, where options are brought forward for public consultation and stakeholder consideration. Feedback received through this consultation, alongside ongoing technical and environmental assessments, will help shape the next stage of project development.
“This consultation is an important milestone in the development of the Powering Up Offshore – South Coast programme,” she says. “The emerging best performing options we are presenting have been informed by extensive technical and environmental studies and engagement with key stakeholders including local communities and landowners. We have looked at all the constraints that need to be considered and put each of the options through a rigorous analysis. We now want to hear directly from communities and interested parties on these proposals.”
That community input is critically important, she emphasises. “You can’t underestimate the value of local intel. We have a team of liaison officers talking to stakeholders, explaining the project and the options, getting feedback and bringing it back into the process. The results of that engagement are every bit as important as the technical analysis. It is all put into the mix and plays a vital role in helping us make informed decisions and develop the best possible project.”
That local knowledge and input will assist at a practical level, she adds. “We have to deal with a lot of constraints in terms of narrow roads, special areas of conservation in the area and so on. We have built a very good reputation for working well with communities and listening to them. EirGrid is a State body and we are going to do things correctly. We are committed to looking after communities and the environment.”
That commitment has already been demonstrated in the region through the Celtic Interconnector project. “We are fortunate to have that example on the south coast. Communities have been kept informed throughout and have seen how we restore roads following cable installation and so on.”
A series of information events are being held in Cork, Waterford and Wexford over the coming weeks. “We encourage everyone with an interest in the project to attend these events and share their views. We want people to come along, see what we are proposing and make their voices heard to inform the progress of the project. If people can’t make it along to one of our open days or mobile information units, they can attend one of our online meetings on Zoom.”
The next step for the project following the consultation phase will see planning applications submitted to the Marine Area Regulatory Authority (Mara) and An Coimisiún Pleanála. “We have a bit of work to do before we get to that stage,” says Dooley. “There is a huge amount of work involved in getting a planning application ready for Mara. Hopefully we will get there next year. We have been very lucky this year in the progress we made on marine surveys with a lot of site investigation works done in collaboration with fishers in the area. From our perspective, protection of the environment on the land and at sea is very important.”
That extends to the Government’s climate action targets. “A key pillar of the Government’s strategy is to have 5GW of power coming from offshore wind in the coming years and we are working to keep this project moving forward to deliver the economic and sustainability benefits of offshore wind.”
For more information, visit eirgrid.ie
