Work is continuing on EirGrid’s Powering Up Offshore South Coast Project, which will build the new infrastructure required to bring power generated by wind farms into the national grid. The project will connect approximately 900MW of electricity, enough to power almost 1 million homes, from wind farms in the sea off Ireland’s south coast.
The wind farms will be located in an area known as Tonn Nua, a little over 12km off the Waterford coast, one of four proposed areas for future offshore wind development set out under the Government’s South Coast – Designated Maritime Area Plan (SC-DMAP).
“While EirGrid is not responsible for generating electricity or building wind farms, we are responsible for connecting the electricity generation infrastructure, such as offshore and onshore wind farms, into the national electricity grid,” says EirGrid chief transformation, technology and offshore officer Liam Ryan.
In this instance, the wind farms will be developed by Helvick Head Offshore Wind, a joint venture partnership between ESB and Denmark-based renewable energy developer Ørsted, which was selected following the Government’s Offshore Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (ORESS) Tonn Nua auction in December. The auction was administered by EirGrid on behalf of the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.
READ MORE
For its part, EirGrid will develop supporting infrastructure, including two offshore substation platforms, offshore transmission cables connecting the offshore substations to landfall locations, new onshore substations, connections between the landfalls and the new onshore substations by underground cables, and connections to the existing electricity transmission network from the new substations by either underground cables or overhead lines.
“We were awarded a Maritime Usage Licence by MARA, the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, last July,” says Ryan. “That allowed us to carry out comprehensive geophysical, geotechnical and environmental surveys to examine the suitability of the marine area under consideration. We have completed all the surveys planned for 2025 and will carry out further surveys between April and September of this year.”
These surveys are key for assessing seabed conditions, soil properties and environmental impacts across the landfall, intertidal, nearshore and offshore zones related to cable corridors for the project, he says.
“The insights gained will inform our plans for the installation of the transmission infrastructure and will guide us as we progress the project in a way that is best for our marine ecosystem and for local communities,” Ryan adds.
The project will bring multiple benefits, both locally and nationally, according to Ryan. From a sustainability point of view, it will enable homes and businesses across the Irish coast and beyond to use electricity generated from offshore renewable energy.
It will also boost security and reliability of supply. “Building a more independent, resilient and reliable electricity grid helps ensure that everyone has power when and where they need it,” he says. “It will help us meet the growing demand for electricity, without increasing our carbon footprint. And it will strengthen the local economy by encouraging and supporting industry investment, which will be attracted by access to a strong electricity grid and the availability of renewable power.”
Collaboration is critically important. “We held a meeting with the developer on January 20 to discuss how we could work collaboratively to deliver the project in an efficient manner,” says Ryan. “We were delighted to welcome the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien to the inaugural meeting. It’s great to have that support from the Minister.”
To maximise local economic benefits, EirGrid held a “meet the buyers” event in collaboration with IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland on January 27th. “This was targeted at the Irish supply chain to make sure local companies are aware of the upcoming opportunities in offshore wind in the DMAP area,” Ryan says.
Community engagement continues to be an important feature of the project. “We have been engaging with the fishing community throughout,” he says. “We want to ensure they are fully briefed about everything happening and that they are part of the process. We are also working with onshore communities to ensure their voice is heard. We want to take on board the wealth of knowledge that exists in communities to help deliver the project successfully.”
As the project progresses, a Community Forum will be established to enable open dialogue between EirGrid and local communities and other stakeholders. “We have a very strong track record of listening to communities. For example, in the Celtic Interconnector project, we worked with the community to find the optimum route. We can’t do these things on our own.”
A community benefit fund will also be established to recognise the important role of local communities who are hosting the grid infrastructure, and to acknowledge the temporary disruption which may be caused during the construction phase.
The coming year will see EirGrid consulting on the best-performing landfall options and cable route options to connect into the grid. “We will carry out more surveys and more community engagement. Ideally, we are looking at the end of 2033 for energisation of the project.”
