Developing a transnational electricity infrastructure offshore: interdependence between technical and regulatory solutions

This paper aims at identifying the options for designing an offshore electricity grid and the legal instruments to create such a grid. It will make a first attempt at presenting the technical and legal considerations which coastal states, EU and national legislators and policy makers should take into account in the coming years when planning and weighing their grid design options. By contrast to the onshore system where the current grid is the result of many decades of local, regional, national and international developments, the situation offshore is different in the sense that currently there is more or less no grid. Moreover, the legal basis for developing such a grid is different offshore than onshore. Therefore designing a system which looks beyond national interests and concepts represents a major challenge. We will discuss whether such a new development as the construction of an offshore electricity grid should be a matter of national policy or should a multilateral or international approach be preferred.