In this set-up and due to its geographic location, Norway for example offers outstanding conditions to store surplus energy by means of pump storage power plants. This means that a share of the demands of major consumption centres in Germany and the United Kingdom can be met, without needing to expand their own energy storage infrastructures at great cost. The prerequisite for this is that the transmission grids are made more flexible and can respond quickly to changes in demand.

In this respect the European Union is relying on close cooperation between neighbouring countries. Thus, in the NSON project, Germany with four European partners (Denmark, Ireland, the UK, Norway) is examining the possibilities of stabilising the high-voltage transmission grid, so that offshore wind power from the North Sea can be expanded. The aim of the project is to identify the concrete storage needs for offshore wind farms as well as to ensure greater flexibility of the system as a whole.

To this end, the individual national grid connections and market concepts were analysed and their potential for a European network evaluated. In a subsequent step, the technical requirements for transmission performances and storage requirements are determined, and recommendations derived from this. On the German side, the Fraunhofer Institute of Energy Economics and Energy System Technology (IEE), the Institute for Mathematics at the University of Kassel as well as the Institute of Electric Power Systems at the Leibniz University Hanover are involved in the project. One part of their work consists in developing and testing mathematical models in order to analyse the transmission grids‘ potential for optimisation. These will be made available to interested parties on conclusion of the project for the purpose of planning and operating complex transmission grids.

As collaborative projects, these projects that were part of NSON received €2 million in federal funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.