Earlier this month, UK energy regulator Ofgem said it was "minded to refuse" RWE permission to enter private land to survey a cable route, although a final decision was yet to be made.
The developer, RWE, applied to Ofgem after it was refused entry by five landowners in Lincolnshire, eastern England, to survey whether the land was suitable for the onshore cables of the 900MW Triton Knoll offshore project.
It is unclear how RWE plans to progress now that it has withdrawn the application, with the developer saying that it is "reviewing options".
Jacob Hain, project manager for Triton Knoll, said: "Voluntary agreements for surveys have been reached with a large number of landowners. The decision to apply to Ofgem to request compulsory access in order to carry out remaining surveys was very much done as a last resort.
"Ofgem has set out an interpretation in its ‘minded to’ position that the rights established in our generation licence may not give us the right to request compulsory access for surveys.
"We do not believe it can have been the intention that the powers of compulsory entry afforded by the generation licence should be narrower in their scope than the powers of compulsory purchase, seeing as the two powers are intended to facilitate a common aim: the delivery of the project.
"We continue to work closely with landowners and local communities, and the development of Triton Knoll is progressing as planned."
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