The British energy regulator Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) has opened the tender for the electricity transmission line to the 1,218 MW Hornsea 1 offshore wind park located off Lincolnshire and Yorkshire (United Kingdom). The link is one of three to be tendered in the round and the other tenders concern the ownership and operation of the power links to the 588 MW Beatrice wind park (offshore Scotland) and the 714 MW East Anglia One wind park (Anglia). This is the sixth tender round Ofgem has conducted under the current transmission owner regime and a total of £2bn (€2.28bn) worth transmission assets have been tendered so far.
The Hornsea One project is being built by Danish energy group Ørsted (formerly known as DONG Energy) and consists of 174 turbines rated 7 MW each. The offshore wind park will be fully commissioned in 2020. It will be linked with the UK mainland grid through a 120-km long cable. The project was granted a Final Investment Decision Enabling contract (Contract for Difference, CfD) by the British Government in April 2014 and will receive a fixed tariff for the first 15 years of production. In September 2018, Ørsted sold a 50% interest in the project to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for nearly £4.5bn (€5bn).
The 588 MW Beatrice offshore wind project located in the Outer Moray Firth is developed by Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL), a joint venture of British energy group SSE (40%), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP, 35%) and SDIC Power (25%), which made the final investment decision in May 2016. Construction started in October 2016 and the first of the 84 turbines was commissioned in July 2018. The £2.6bn (€3.4bn) wind project is expected to become fully operational in 2019.
The 714 MW East Anglia project is developed by Scottish Power Renewables (Iberdrola). The £2.5bn (€2.8bn) project will be commissioned in 2020.