UK: Ofgem Announces Shortlist for West of Duddon Sands Transmission Assets

Ofgem has announced a shortlist of four bidders competing to own and operate the offshore transmission links to the West of Duddon Sands windfarm.

Shortlisted bidders go through to the final bid stage where Ofgem will appoint the Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO) to own and operate the £311m transmission assets for the next 20 years.

The competitive tender process run by Ofgem has resulted in strong competition for the West of Duddon Sands transmission assets and will ultimately ensure that the windfarm developer is partnered with the most efficient and competitive bidder.

Ofgem expect to be able to announce details of the preferred bidder for the project in spring 2014.

The West of Duddon Sands transmission assets are being tendered under the second transitional tender round of the OFTO regime, which totals £1.4 billion of transmission assets.

The next tender round using the generator build model, Tender Round 3 (TR3), is expected to launch later in 2013.

The shortlisted bidders are:

• Balfour Beatty Equitix Consortium (a bidder group comprising Balfour Beatty Investment Ltd and Equitix Ltd)
• Blue Transmission (a bidder group comprising Macquarie Capital Group Ltd, Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management Ltd, Mitsubishi Corporation and Frontier Power Ltd)
• John Laing Investments Ltd
• Transmission Capital Partners (a bidder group comprising Transmission Capital Partners Limited Partnership and International Public Partnerships Ltd)

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Press release, June 27, 2013; Image: DONG Energy