The Legal Aspects of the Protection of Offshore Electricity Grid Elements

With the large volumes of offshore wind to be installed in the coming decades and the increasing demand for interconnection between countries, it is to be expected that cross-border offshore High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) electricity infrastructure is developed. Current HVDC infrastructure is based on point-to-point connections delivered by one vendor. However, for offshore grid development, multi-vendor, multi-terminal HVDC grids are used. HVDC infrastructure is usually protected by control and protection systems located at converter stations. With single-vendor, point-to-point infrastructure, these systems could be black boxed by their vendors. However, in a multi-vendor situation, this is not always possible. This has consequences for the IP strategy that vendors use but also for cybersecurity aspects of the system. After a short background on offshore HVDC systems, this chapter treats the shift from single- to multi-vendor systems and the cybersecurity threats and protection thereof. The chapter also sheds light on the legal framework on this issue, formed by the recent adoption of a Network Code on this matter and the NIS2 Directive.