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The Crown Estate (TCE) has recently announced the opening of its Leasing Round 4 for Offshore Wind deployment. The announcement offers developers an opportunity to secure seabed rights for new projects off the coast of England and Wales, with at least 7GW and a maximum of 8.5GW of capacity being made available. TCE has selected four potential areas for deployment, with an aim of utilising at least three of these areas. The selected areas are Dogger Bank, Eastern Regions, South West and Northern Wales/Irish Sea. The four bidding areas.png Figure 1: The four Crown Estate bidding areas Developers have been given the freedom to choose their preferred site within each of the selected locations and are able to bid for sites which are large enough to support projects up to a maximum capacity of 1.5GW. Each of the selected areas are limited to 3.5GW, with a minimum capacity of 400MW

On the 10th December last year, TNEI celebrated its 20th Anniversary. From a 3-person operation starting in Newcastle in 1999, combining TNEI with IPSA Power in 2002 and then growing to the 60+ strong team across 4 offices and 2 countries we are today, we are extremely proud of our journey so far and the reputation and good name we’ve managed to establish during that time. CEO, Nigel Tate, who was involved in the purchase of TNEI and has been with the company ever since says “Back in 2000, renewable energy was still a novel idea for many people and it was something of a gamble for us to acquire and invest in this fledgling renewables consultancy. I certainly never envisaged the changes we’ve seen in public awareness and attitude to climate change during this time and am very pleased that TNEI has played a part in helping to enable

As many companies are transitioning to working-from-home practices, we thought you might like to hear how TNEI have enabled this. Senior Consultant David Padayachee shares his working from home experience and explains how TNEI as a company are continuing to deliver our services whilst our staff our working remotely. What is your role at TNEI and what do your day to day tasks involve? I am a Senior Consultant at TNEI and I primarily help to deliver technical advisory services covering a wide range of projects for UK DNOs and TNOs. Recent projects have included the review and update of engineering policies based on the latest engineering IEC/BS Standards, Engineering Recommendations and OFGEM Guidance documents. Documents reviewed cover a wide range of topics ranging from DNO Design Philosophy and Principles, Equipment Ratings and Specifications, HV Connection Arrangements, G89/G99 Generation Policy Documents and OFGEM RIIO Business Plan documents. How have you

We are delighted to announce thatRobin McCormickhas been appointed as the Chair of TNEI Ireland. Robin recently retired from the EirGrid Group where he was Director of Operations, Planning and Innovation, General Manager of SONI and Chairman of the SONI board. With a wealth of experience in the Irish electricity industry, Robin has also previously been General Manager of SEMO, overseeing its formation and early years of operation. Nathaniel Cowton, Director of TNEI Ireland, comments: “Robin is highly regarded throughout the industry and rightly so. With his extensive experience and interests that align with our own, Robin is uniquely well qualified to chair TNEI Ireland. His appointment gets us off to a flying start, as we seek to help our clients in delivering Ireland’s ambitious target of 70% renewables by 2030.” Commenting on his appointment, Robin says: “I am delighted to be associated with the talented TNEI team as they

Specialist energy consultancy TNEI is launching a series of webinars offering additional knowledge and inspiration on a variety of industry topics such as key innovation challenges, the new G5/5 requirements, and IPSA functionalities. Each webinar will focus on a specific topic and will include a presentation by an industry expert followed by Q&A with participants. We will be sharing key knowledge and up-to-date industry information in the 30-minute sessions with our experts. We aim to touch upon some key questions that are being asked at the moment: Director of Networks and Innovation, Stephanie Hay comments: “There is so much going on in the industry at the moment that it can be difficult to keep track of all the latest developments. It is my hope that, through this series of webinars, we can help clients and the wider industry to stay informed. After carrying out some research we have carefully put

On 19th February TNEI’s James Mackay submitted a joint consultation response to the Irish Government regarding a draft update to the Wind Energy Development Guidelines. The joint submission was prepared by a number of acousticians involved with the measurement and assessment of wind farm noise and sets out a number of technical concerns regarding the proposed update. You can view the joint submission here. On the 25th Februaryfour members of the acousticians group, including TNEI’s James Mackay, attended a meeting with Government to expand on the points raised in the submission. After the meeting, Jim Singleton noted: “Our group is made up of acousticians who act for various stakeholders including Councils, developers and resident groups. Our joint submission focused on the technical aspects of the proposed update, of which there are a numbers of areas that cause us significant concern and we feel require amendment. The final guidelines must be