Ofgem has announced shortlists of bidders competing to own and operate transmission links to the Galloper and Walney Extension wind farms off the coasts of Cumbria and Suffolk.
The three bidders, shortlisted to own and operate both the Galloper and the Walney Extension offshore transmission links, are Diamond Transmission Partners, a consortium of Mitsubishi Corporation and HICL Infrastructure Company Limited; Mari Energy Transmission, a consortium of Macquarie Capital Group Limited and Frontier Power Limited; and Transmission Capital Partners, a consortium of International Public Partnerships Limited and Transmission Capital Partners Limited Partnership.
The bidders will now go through to the Invitation to Tender stage. Following that, Ofgem will appoint the preferred bidder for each link.
At the final stage, Ofgem appoints a bidder as an Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO). The OFTO will receive a fixed revenue stream for operating the link for 20 years under the terms of their licence, subject to the availability of their assets.
The two links are the final projects of the five to be tendered under the fifth round of the OFTO regime. Under the regime, which was established by Ofgem and the UK government, bidders compete for the rights to own the links to the wind farms.
The assets in the fifth round have an estimated value of GBP 2 billion and will connect 2.3GW of generation capacity, making it the biggest tender round to date.
The bidder shortlist for the first three links in the fifth round for the Dudgeon, Race Bank and Rampion wind farms was announced in February.