Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure grid infrastructure is developed to support further deployment of floating offshore wind.

Network regulation, including ensuring security of supply, is a matter for Ofgem, the independent energy regulator. Ofgem uses the RIIO price control framework to incentivise electricity network companies to invest efficiently in the grid – providing a safe, secure and reliable network for all consumers at the lowest possible cost.

As part of the BEIS-led Offshore Transmission Network Review, National Grid Electricity System Operator will shortly publish a Holistic Network Design (HND) which brings together the coordinated planning of wider onshore network reinforcements and the connections for around 23GW of offshore wind, including over 3GW of floating wind.

The objective of the OTNR is to ensure that the transmission connections for offshore wind generation are delivered in the most appropriate way, considering the increased ambition for offshore wind to help achieve net zero. This will be done with a view to finding the appropriate balance between environmental, social and economic costs.