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The key link in any wind farm project is the grid connection, where the power generated by the wind farm feeds into the national grid system.
In March 2010, Forewind signed a connection agreement for its first project, to connect at Creyke Beck, north of the Humber Estuary. In October 2011, Forewind signed two more connection agreements for an additional two projects likely to be located at an existing National Grid substation site at Lackenby, east of Middlesborough.
In March 2012, Forewind announced the signing of a further 3GW grid connections. One of those will connect at Creyke Beck, the site of the first grid connection agreement. The remaining two connections will be located in Teesside, at a site which is to be finalised.
This means Forewind is now proceeding with the development of a total of 6GW of offshore wind farm generation capacity.
From a technical perspective, work has begun to design the electrical system to connect from the offshore zone back to the National Grid substations. These connections will make use of innovative High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) technology. These assets will eventually be owned and operated by an Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO).