A review of the North Seas offshore grid modeling: current and future research

Abstract

The North Seas offshore grid serves to connect offshore wind power to onshore systems, and to interconnect power systems in Northern Europe. Its development is a priority for the European climate and energy policy, which has led to a number of studies on the subject. Nonetheless, research questions, assumptions and typologies can vary considerably among them, and thus to guide future research this paper reviews the published works that use bottom up energy models. This review develops a simple and effective methodology that can be applied to other reviews of energy systems models. It jointly considers the studies of interest, the system characteristics, a categorization framework and relevant indicators. The analysis indicates most studies focus on investment and operation of the grid using optimization models, with rare use of other research questions or other model approaches. Moreover, results vary significantly, and their comparability is limited due to differences in assumptions, methodology and detail of results publication. Nonetheless, integrated typologies frequently present economic, operational and environmental benefits, although the reviewed studies do not unambiguously warrant immediate and full cooperation on grid governance. Lastly, future research should be attentive to the presentation and resolution of data, assumptions and results, as well as consider grid characteristics relevant to the research questions.