Ofgem today announced a shortlist of five bidders competing to own and run the GBP 230 million transmission link to the Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm, situated in the Bay of Liverpool.
The bidders will now go through to the final stage of the tender where Ofgem will appoint the Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO) for the project. The OFTO will receive a guaranteed revenue stream for 20 years under the terms of their licence, subject to availability of the assets.
The shortlisted bidders include Balfour Beatty Equitix Consortium, which bought the Humber Gateway offshore transmission assets for GBP 163 million last week , Dalmore Capital Limited, Diamond Transmission Partners, Mari Energy Transmission, and Transmission Capital Partners.
Ofgem expects to announce details of the preferred bidder for the Burbo Bank Extension project in April 2017.
The Burbo Bank Extension project is being tendered under the fourth round of the OFTO regime. Since the regime was set up in 2009, it has attracted nearly GBP 3 billion investment and led to significant savings in the costs of delivering offshore wind, Ofgem pointed out.