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Ofgem calls OFTO round six

By: Tom Russell 09/10/2018 Ofgem

Cables Corporate General Substations Windfarms

The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) has launched the sixth round of the Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO) regime for offshore wind farms in the UK. Tenders for the electricity transmission link of multiple wind farms will open at the end of October.

In this round, Ofgem is opening a tender for the 1.2GW Hornsea Project One wind farm project 120km off the coast of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, set to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm once complete.

It is owned by Ørsted and is expected to be commissioned in 2020. It will feature 174 Siemens Gamesa SWT-7.0-154 turbines which will power more than 1 million homes.

The other tenders are for the ownership of links to the 588MW Beatrice wind farm project off the coast of Scotland and the 714MW East Anglia ONE wind farm project off the coast of East Anglia.

Located in the Moray Firth, the Beatrice project will be Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, comprising of 84 Siemens Gamesa SWT-7.0-154 turbines. The 588MW capacity array is expected to be capable of generating enough electricity to power approximately 450,000 homes. The project generated first power in July and commissioning is expected in 2019.

The £2.5bn East Anglia ONE wind farm is the first of four projects in the East Anglia region to begin construction. It is being realised solely by ScottishPower Renewables. The 714MW array will feature 102 SWT-7.0-154 direct-drive wind turbines, each with a capacity of 7MW. Full commissioning is scheduled for 2020 and the project is expected to meet the energy demands of 500,000 British households annually.

Jonathan Brearley, executive director for systems and networks at Ofgem, said: “Tendering ownership of links to offshore wind farms has already proven to be a successful way of connecting cleaner electricity generation to the networks at a lower cost for consumers. It is also a boost for competition as it attracts new players into the energy market. Over the next decade we plan to open up high value onshore grid upgrades to competition so that we continue to drive down network costs for consumers.”

This is the sixth tender round Ofgem has conducted under the OFTO regime, with a total of £2 billion of transmission assets being tendered. The last tender round was launched in October 2016, and included five projects: Dudgeon , Race Bank, Rampion , Galloper and Walney Extension.

Since Ofgem and the Government launched the regime in 2009 winning bidders have so far invested £3bn in links connecting 4.6GW of offshore wind farms.

For more information on offshore wind farm grid connection systems, click here.

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Ofgem calls OFTO round six

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