U.K. energy regulator Ofgem is to launch the process for the first of two tender rounds for electricity transmission links from offshore wind farms to shore in June, Ofgem's director of offshore transmission told Dow Jones Newswires.
The move will allow for the connection of around five gigawatts of electricity generated by offshore wind projects and ensures there won't be delays bringing the electricity into the grid.
"We're currently consulting on the final stages of the process, which will go active June 24," Ofgem's Robert Hull said in an interview on the sidelines of an industry conference earlier this week.
Once the process is live, the tender for the grid links will be launched after qualification in July. Final contracts are expected to be awarded by June 2010, Hull said.
The first tender will be for projects that were awarded under the U.K. Crown Estate's Round 1 and 2 licensing process and include wind farms owned by U.K. utilities Scottish and Southern Energy PLC (SSE.LN) and Centrica PLC (CNA.LN) and Germany's E.ON AG (EOAN.XE) and RWE AG (RWE.XE).
The second tender will be for electricity connections for wind farms including the flagship 1 GW London Array project whose partners include E.ON, Denmark's DONG Energy and the U.A.E.'s Masdar.