(Reuters) – British energy regulator Ofgem said on Wednesday it is inviting bids from investors to own and operate electricity transmission links worth 4 billion pounds ($5.06 billion), connecting Great Britain to homegrown North Sea power.
The assets, being tendered under the regulator’s offshore transmission owner (OFTO) regime, will connect energy company RWE’s Sofia wind farm to the onshore electricity grid in North Yorkshire, powering 1.2 million houses across the country.
“OFTO is part of Ofgem’s work to attract investors into the UK to boost growth and build a stable and secure energy system to deliver clean power to people’s homes,” said Beatrice Filkin, Ofgem Director of Major Projects.
Ofgem plans to launch another round of tender, anticipated to be its biggest one to date, comprising transmission assets for the Dogger Bank C, Inch Cape and East Anglia 3 windfarms.
Dogger Bank, considered to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, is a 3.6 gigawatt (GW) wind farm, being built by Britain’s SSE along with Norway’s Equinor and Vargronn in three phases.
($1 = 0.7903 pounds)
(Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
