Offshore grid planning
Article 14
1. By 24 January 2023, Member States, with the support of the Commission, within their specific priority offshore grid corridors, set out in Section 2 of Annex I, taking into account the specificities and development in each region, shall conclude a non-binding agreement to cooperate on goals for offshore renewable generation to be deployed within each sea basin by 2050, with intermediate steps in 2030 and 2040, in line with their national energy and climate plans, and the offshore renewable potential of each sea basin. That non-binding agreement shall be made in writing as regards each sea basin linked to the territory of the Member States, and shall be without prejudice to the right of Member States to develop projects on their territorial sea and exclusive economic zone. The Commission shall provide guidance for the work in the Groups. 2. By 24 January 2024, and as part of each ten-year network development plan thereafter, the ENTSO for Electricity, with the involvement of the relevant TSOs, the national regulatory authorities, the Member States and the Commission, and in line with the non-binding agreement referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, shall develop and publish, as a separate report which is part of the Union-wide ten-year network development plan, high-level strategic integrated offshore network development plans for each sea-basin, in line with the priority offshore grid corridors referred to in Annex I, taking into account environmental protection and other uses of the sea. In the development of the high-level strategic integrated offshore network development plans within the timeline provided for in paragraph 1, the ENTSO for Electricity shall consider the non-binding agreements referred to in paragraph 1 for the development of the Union-wide ten-year network development plan scenarios. The high-level strategic integrated offshore network development plans shall provide a high-level outlook on offshore generation capacities potential and resulting offshore grid needs, including the potential needs for interconnectors, hybrid projects, radial connections, reinforcements, and hydrogen infrastructure. 3. The high-level strategic integrated offshore network development plans shall be consistent with regional investment plans published pursuant to Article 34(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 and integrated within the Union-wide ten-year network development plans in order to ensure coherent development of onshore and offshore grid planning and the necessary reinforcements. 4. By 24 December 2024 and every two years thereafter, the Member States, shall update their non-binding agreements referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, including in view of the results of the application of the cost-benefit and cost-sharing to the priority offshore grid corridors, when those results become available. 5. After each update of the non-binding agreements in accordance with paragraph 4, for each sea basin, the ENTSO for Electricity shall update the high level strategic integrated offshore network development plans within the next Union-wide ten-year network development plan as referred to in paragraph 2.