North Irish Sea Array Windfarm Ltd, a joint venture between Statkraft and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, completed the engineering and selection of the final onshore export cable route for the NISA project, choosing the alignment with the least constructability challenges from the Bremore Bay landfall north of Balbriggan, across agricultural fields, under the Dublin–Belfast railway and along suitable roads to a new grid facility and onward connection at Belcamp substation. The route and associated landfall solution, which use horizontal directional drilling to avoid disturbing the coastline, were finalised following stakeholder consultation and iterative refinement of cable routing options and site selection for the grid facility.
In 2024, North Irish Sea Array Windfarm Ltd submitted a strategic infrastructure planning application for the NISA Offshore Wind Farm to An Bord Pleanála, including offshore export cables, landfall works, onshore export cable routes, and a new 220 kV grid facility connecting to Belcamp substation.
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The North Irish Sea Array (NISA) Export is the planned transmission link to bring electricity from the NISA offshore wind development to the Irish onshore grid. The export system is specified as two parallel 220 kV HVAC subsea export cable circuits running from an offshore substation platform (OS...
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NISA Export Cable, North Irish Sea Array Export Cable, North Irish Sea Array (NISA) Export Cable Route, NISA Export, FS007358
As part of the 2024 strategic infrastructure planning application to An Bord Pleanála, the developer submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR), including a Non‑Technical Summary, for the NISA Offshore Wind Farm covering both the offshore export cable corridor and onshore cable and grid facility works.
In 2023, North Irish Sea Array Windfarm Ltd conducted further public engagement on the NISA project, including one‑to‑one meetings with the project team and both virtual and public consultation events, to discuss the emerging design layout and associated offshore export cable route and onshore cable/grid infrastructure before submitting the planning application.
In 2022 and 2023, offshore geophysical survey campaigns for the NISA project, including the export cable corridor, were carried out and reported by Fugro and N‑Sea, providing detailed seabed and sub‑seabed mapping needed to design the subsea export cable route and burial strategy.
By 2023, geotechnical site investigations for the NISA project, including cone penetration tests and boreholes, had been undertaken offshore to characterise underlying geological conditions along the array area and export cable corridor, supplying data required for foundation and export cable design and construction methodology development.
By 2023, benthic ecology baseline surveys for the NISA array area and the export cable route, documented by Natural Power, had been completed alongside other offshore and onshore ecological, archaeological, noise, traffic and watercourse surveys, providing environmental constraints and baseline data to inform the export cable landfall choice, onshore cable routing, and associated construction methods.
North Irish Sea Array Offshore Wind Farm, which includes the NISA 220 kV export cable system and associated grid connection infrastructure, was awarded an Offshore Renewable Energy Support Scheme (ORESS) contract in June 2023. This revenue support award sets requirements for the proposed development to be fully operational by December 2031, enabling it to contribute to Ireland’s 5 GW offshore wind target for 2030.
In December 2022, the NISA Offshore Wind Farm, including its offshore export cable corridor and onshore grid connection infrastructure, was awarded a Maritime Area Consent (MAC), giving the developer the right to occupy the maritime area and imposing an 18‑month deadline for submitting the project’s planning application.
By the end of the 2019–2022 period, environmental surveys for the North Irish Sea Array project were completed, providing key baseline data across the offshore area, landfall and onshore corridor that informed definition of the Maritime Area Consent boundary and selection of the export cable landfall and onshore cable route and grid facility locations.
In 2021, the developer carried out pre‑planning consultation for the NISA project with statutory bodies, members of the local community and the local fishing community, and launched the first Virtual Consultation Room to gather feedback on the offshore wind farm and its export cable and grid connection proposals.
In 2020, the NISA project progressed to an Advanced Concept Stage, refining the overall offshore wind farm layout together with the associated export cable corridor, landfall solution using HDD at Bremore/Balbriggan, and the onshore grid facility and route towards Belcamp substation.
In 2019, North Irish Sea Array Windfarm Ltd undertook an initial consultation and feasibility phase for the NISA Offshore Wind Farm, beginning formal engagement with stakeholders on the project, including the offshore export cable corridor and onshore grid connection concept off the coasts of Dublin, Meath and Louth.
North Irish Sea Array Windfarm Limited, the developer of the North Irish Sea Array project including its offshore and onshore transmission infrastructure, is structured as a 50/50 joint venture between Statkraft Ireland Ltd and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners P/S. This joint venture company is responsible for proposing and developing the NISA Offshore Wind Farm and associated export cables, offshore substation platform, onshore grid facility, and grid connection works in County Dublin.
North Irish Sea Array Windfarm Ltd applied to EirGrid for a grid connection for the NISA export system, leading EirGrid to specify the existing Belcamp 220 kV substation in north County Dublin as the connection point and to issue a Grid Connection Assessment, the first step towards a full Grid Connection Agreement. This assessment meant no alternative grid connection locations were pursued by the developer.
The Environmental Impact Assessment Report for the North Irish Sea Array offshore wind farm states that the export cable corridor is designed for an operational life of 35 years and that decommissioning will involve removal of the two offshore export cables, each approximately 9.7 nautical miles in length. This planned decommissioning activity will occur after the end of the cables’ operational life and entails extracting both export cables from the seabed along the export cable corridor.
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