Ofgem has shortlisted five companies bidding to own and operate the £2.7bn transmission links for three UK offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 2520MW.
Aegir Energy Transmission, Core Transmission Partners, Diamond Transmission Partners, Equitix TEPCO Consortium and Transmission Capital Partners are in the running for the three grid assets.
The projects are the SSE-led 588MW Beatrice off northern Scotland, Orsted’s 1218MW Hornsea 1 off Yorkshire and ScottishPower’s 714MW East Anglia 1 off the east of England.
Aegir is a consortium of Macquarie Corporate Holdings and Frontier Power, while Core Transmission Partners is a consortium of BBGI SICAV and Semco Maritime.
Diamond Transmission Partners is made up of Mitsubishi Corporation and Chubu Electric Power, with Transmission Capital Partners a consortium of International Public Partnerships and Transmission Capital Partners Limited Partnership.
Ofgem said the bidders will now go through to the final invitation to tender stage, which will be staggered for each project.
The process for Beatrice will start shortly, the UK energy regulator said, followed by Hornsea 1 in July and East Anglia 1 in February 2020.
Ofgem said that as set-out in the Enhanced Pre-Qualification (EPQ) document for this tender round, where there are fewer than eight qualifying bidders for Hornsea 1 and East Anglia 1, an additional EPQ stage may be run for these two projects.
The outcome of whether Ofgem decides to run this additional EPQ stage will be made shortly, it added.
The winning OFTOs will be guaranteed a revenue stream for 25 years under the terms of the licence, Ofgem said.