Transmission Capital Partners has been selected to run the transmission link for the 150 MW Ormonde offshore windfarm off the Cumbrian coast. This follows the announcement in August of the preferred bidders to operate the first £700 million worth of offshore transmission links. The Ormonde transmission link is worth a further £100m.
Following a close competition between bidders at the Invitation to Tender (ITT) stage, Ofgem decided to invite three out of the four original bidders to make their best and final offers (BAFO). Through a BAFO process designed to ensure best value for money for both customers and wind farm generators, Ofgem selected Transmission Capital Partners (a consortium of Transmission Capital, International Public Partnerships and Amber Infrastructure Group) as the preferred bidder. Balfour Beatty Capital have been selected as the reserve bidder.
Overall the current tender round is forecast to deliver savings of £350 million for offshore wind farms and consumers.
These decisions follow the setting up of the Offshore Transmission Regime by DECC and Ofgem’s delivery arm, Ofgem E-Serve, to deliver the high voltage links to offshore wind farms as cost effectively as possible. In total high-voltage cable links worth over £20 billion would be needed to connect a potential of around 50 GW of offshore wind over the coming years.
[mappress]
Source: ofgem, October 29, 2010