The cap and floor regime is the regulated route for interconnector development in GB. There are three main stages to our cap and floor regime – the Initial Project Assessment (IPA), the Final Project Assessment (FPA) and the Post Construction Review (PCR). Following our IPA of the Greenlink interconnector we decided to grant the project a cap and floor regime in principle in September 2015.
The Greenlink project is being developed by Greenlink Interconnector Limited. It will be a 500MW interconnector between Pembrokeshire in Wales, Great Britain and Great Island in County Wexford, Republic of Ireland. Our cap and floor regulatory regime applies to the GB portion of the cost and revenues of the project (50% share).
As part of the FPA consultation, we have provided a cost assessment of the Greenlink project and set out our minded to position on efficient expenditure which will go on to inform the project’s provisional cap and floor levels. We also request views on our high level technical assessment and have provided confirmation of the cap and floor regime design.
This paper is a consultation on the costs and technical aspects of the FPA for the Greenlink interconnector. Following financial close, we will update the cap and floor financial model and publish the preliminary cap and floor levels based on the costs that we have assessed in this document.
Alongside this consultation is a decision letter informing Greenlink Interconnector Limited and wider stakeholders of the outcome of our decision to revisit aspects of the needs case for the Greenlink interconnector. Following our review of the socio-economic benefits and wider impacts of Greenlink, we have concluded that Greenlink is likely still in the interest of current and future GB consumers.