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Ofgem
has appointed Diamond Transmission Partners (DTP) as the preferred bidder
to own and operate the offshore transmission link to the
Burbo
Bank Extension wind farm for the
next 20 years. The estimated value of the transmission assets is £180.6m
DTP is a consortium comprising Mitsubishi Corporation and HICL Infrastructure
Company Limited. It was selected by Ofgem through its fourth tender round
which bidders compete to become Offshore Transmission Owners (OFTOs).
Ofgem stated the fourth round saw the lowest bids to date as a proportion
of the asset value which further demonstrates the value of continuing to
use competitive tendering to provide the best value for consumers.
With a capacity of 254.2MW the wind farm is expected to be capable of meeting
the electricity demand of 230,000 homes. It is the first offshore wind
farm in the world to make commercial use of the
MHI
Vestas V164-8.0 MW wind turbines.
The last of the turbines at the project in Liverpool Bay was installed
at 8:25PM (GMT) on the 14th December. Turbine installation was completed
within three months and was carried out by A2SEA's
SEA
INSTALLER which collected components
from the pre-assembly site at Belfast Harbour.
The wind farm is located in Liverpool
Bay, 7km from the shore, next door to the existing and operational
Burbo
Bank project
which itself was, at the time, the first project to use the
Siemens
3.6MW turbines.
Ofgem is currently in the process of selecting
OFTOs for the
Dudgeon,
Race
Bank,
Rampion,
Walney
Extension and
Galloper
offshore wind farms through its
fifth
tender round. The fifth round has
an estimated value of £2bn and will connect 2.3GW of generation capacity,
making it the biggest tender round to date.
For more information please follow the
links provided.