OFGEM to start tender for round 5 of OFTO projects in October

Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM), the government regulator for gas and electricity markets in Great Britain, has announced it will start tender for Round 5 of Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO).

OFTO Tender Round Five (TR5) is expected to start in October 2016. TR5 will enable bidders to compete to own the transmission assets of five British offshore wind farm projects with an approximate total generation capacity of 2.3GW.

Each transmission system is being constructed by the offshore wind farm developer and will include offshore substation platform(s), offshore and onshore AC export cables, and an onshore substation.

OFGEM administer the tender process for each project, which will result in the appointment of an OFTO to own and operate each transmission system.

The five projects are:

• Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm, with a capacity of 402 MW, consisting of 67 Siemens 6MW wind turbines. It is located 32km off the coast of Cromer in North Norfolk and it is owned by affiliates of Statoil ASA, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC (“Masdar”), and Statkraft AS.

• Galloper Wind Farm comprises of 56 Siemens SWT-6.0-154 Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs), with a capacity of up to 340MW. It is located 27km off the east coast of England and is adjacent to the Greater Gabbard project. The onshore connection point is at Sizewell, near Leiston. The farm is equally owned by RWE, Siemens Financial Services, UK Green Investment Bank and Macquarie Capital, who each have a 25% share in the company.

• Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm consists of 91 6.3MW turbines and an overall capacity of 565 MW. It is located in the North Sea, 27km north of Blakeney point off the coast of Norfolk, and 28kms east of Chapel St. Leonards off the coast of Lincolnshire. The transmission assets will connect at the Wapole 400kV substation near King’s Lynn. The farm is 100% indirectly owned by DONG Energy

• Rampion Offshore Wind Farm consist of 116 Vestas 3.45MW turbines, with a maximum total generating capacity of 400.2MW. It is located approximately 13km off the south coast of England, near Sussex. The site covers an area of approximately 78km2 and is situated in water depths of 19-40m. The farm is jointly owned by EON (50.1%), Enbridge (24.9%) and Green Investment Bank (25%)

• Walney Extension Offshore Wind Farm, contains two phases: WOW03 and WOW04. For the purposes of TR5, both phases will be treated as a single Qualifying Project and one licence will be awarded to an OFTO to operate the Walney Extension. It is located approximately 19km from shore in the Irish Sea and connects to Heysham and it is100% indirectly owned by DONG Energy.