The Cornwall Flow Accelerator work package 4 led by ORE Catapult details innovation in low carbon design
and manufacturability that lays the groundwork for development of low carbon strategies, across design,
manufacturing and operations & maintenance. Within this work package, the goal of this specific task 6
analysis, is for the electrical infrastructure of floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea to identify
opportunities in the UK’s South West region.

This research will build on earlier considerations of how floating offshore wind can be integrated into the
South Wales and South West UK transmission network, focusing on the introduction of the South West
offshore substations, the Pembroke Demonstration Zone development and the substation, 4 GW
expansion analysis, and technical bottleneck and promising technologies, i.e., floating offshore substation
and subsea substation.

The scope of this study is restricted to high-voltage alternating current substations, and a substation
capacity range under the Pembrokeshire Demonstration Zone from 1 to 2.4 GW as the primary focus
initially building out to 4 GW with multiple platforms. This work aimed to determine the benefits of fixed
jacket multipurpose offshore substations, the comparisons of fixed versus floating substations and when
they become competitive at deep water. Some of the key considerations that would influence the decision
to build out the Celtic Sea’s floating offshore wind ambitions are also investigated.

Full Report:  CFA-OREC-Future potential role of offshore multipurpose connectors