A proposed £3.4 billion funding package has been announced for the Eastern Green Link 2 (EGL2), a 500-kilometre electricity superhighway connecting Scotland and Yorkshire.
The project, expected to power around two million homes, involves a subsea and underground cable link between Peterhead in Aberdeenshire and Drax in North Yorkshire.
EGL2, designed to harness Britain’s offshore wind power potential, is the second project to proceed under Ofgem’s Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework.
This framework aims to expedite strategic energy projects, facilitating the delivery of electricity generated by offshore wind to British consumers.
The EGL2 project is one of 26 identified as critical to meeting the government’s target of 50GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
Financed by developers with costs later recouped through bills, EGL2 underwent scrutiny by Ofgem to minimise consumer costs.
Ofgem identified £67 million in potential cost reductions without compromising project delivery or quality.
Rebecca Barnett, Ofgem Director of Major Projects, said: ”To ensure we meet future energy demand and achieve government net zero targets we must speed up the expansion of the high voltage electricity network which connects consumers to homegrown energy.”
