UK energy regulator Ofgem said today it is opening a tender to own the transmission link to the 1.2-GW Hornsea 1 offshore wind project.

The link is one of three to be tendered in the sixth tender round under the offshore transmission owner regime. The other tenders -- for the links to the 588-MW Beatrice and 714-MW East Anglia One projects will open at the end of October.

The links to the three wind farms are currently being constructed by the wind farm developers.

Hornsea 1, which will become the world's largest offshore wind farm when completed, is being developed by Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) off the coast of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. The Danish energy group recently agreed to offload a 50% stake in the project to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).

Overall, the transmission assets being tendered under the sixth round are word around GBP 2 billion (USD 2.6bn/EUR 2.3bn).

"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," said Jonathan Brearley, executive director for systems and networks at Ofgem. "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," Brearley added.

Source: Renewables Now