Ofgem has appointed Transmission Capital Partners (TCP) as the preferred bidder to own and operate the offshore transmission link to the Westermost Rough windfarm for the next 20 years.

Transmission Capital Partners, a consortium comprising Transmission Capital Partners Limited Partnership and International Public Partnerships Limited, was selected by Ofgem through a competitive process in which bidders compete to become offshore transmission owners (OFTOs). This tender exercise saw the lowest revenue bids, as a proportion of asset value, seen to date, the company said.

The Westermost Rough offshore wind farm, located in the North Sea approximately eight kilometres off the coast of Yorkshire, comprises 35 wind turbines and has a total installed capacity of 210MW. The estimated value of the transmission assets is £172.3m. The transmission assets for this project are currently owned and being constructed by Westermost Rough Ltd, a joint venture between DONG Energy (with 50 per cent ownership), Marubeni Corporation (with 25 per cent) and the UK Green Investment Bank (with 25 per cent).

The Westermost Rough transmission assets are being tendered under Tender Round 3. Since the offshore transmission regime was set up by Ofgem and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in 2009, it has delivered £2.3 billion of investment and led to significant savings for consumers. In addition to this, over £600 million of transmission assets are currently in the process towards licence grant, with billions more in the pipeline for future tender rounds.