Hornsea Two Transmission Assets Change Hands

July 21, 2023, by Adnan Memija

Breesea, Soundmark Wind, and Sonningmay Wind, a joint venture owned by Ørsted (50 per cent) and AXA IM Alts and Crédit Agricole Assurances (CAA) (jointly 50 per cent), have signed an agreement to sell their offshore transmission assets (OFTO) of Hornsea Two offshore wind farm to Diamond Transmission Partners Hornsea Two Limited (DTP).

The transmission assets include the onshore substation, export cables, the offshore reactive compensation substation (RCS), and the offshore substation which have been assessed by Ofgem at a value of GBP 1.141 billion.

Ørsted will provide DTP with operations and maintenance services for the transmission assets under a long-term agreement.

DTP is a partnership between Diamond Transmission Corporation Limited and HICL Infrastructure PLC.

In September 2022, following a competitive tender, Ofgem selected DTP as the preferred bidder for the offshore transmission licence for the Hornsea Two offshore wind farm.

A year earlier, DTP signed an agreement with the owners of the Hornsea One offshore wind farm to acquire the project’s transmission assets.

Developed by Ørsted, Hornsea Two is one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms in operation, located 89 kilometres off the Yorkshire Coast, alongside Hornsea One.

The 1.3 GW project features 165 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW wind turbines which can power 1.4 million UK homes with clean energy.

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The first turbine was installed at the end of May 2021 and the 1,320 MW wind farm generated its first power in December 2021, after its offshore substation – the world’s largest offshore AC substation – and reactive compensation station (RCS) were installed some two months earlier.

The power produced by Hornsea Two is being transferred to the offshore substation and RCS via 373 kilometres of array cables and is reaching the national grid through 390 kilometres of offshore and 40 kilometres of onshore export cables which terminate at the onshore substation in Killingholme.