Competition for Cumbrian wind farm project heats up
Three bidders shortlisted for the £101m offshore transmission assets of the Ormonde wind farm project, located in the Irish Sea off Barrow-in-Furness, will enter a further round of bidding.
The three shortlisted includes:
- Macquarie Capital Group – a consortium including MCGL, Barclays Private Equity and NIBC Infrastructure Partners
- Transmission Capital Partners – a consortium of Transmission Capital International Public Partnerships and Amber Infrastructure Group
- Balfour Beatty Capital
A spokesman for the Government's office of the gas and electricity markets, Ofgem, which is tendering the contract for the project, told Place: "There is not a great deal to choose between their proposals. It has been difficult to select one of them so we've asked them to submit their best and final offers."
The Ormonde wind farm will be located off Walney Island in the east Irish Sea and consist of 30 wind turbine generators to provide 150 mega watts of electricity to thousands of homes.
The preferred bidder will be given a licence from Ofgem to own, operate and maintain the offshore high-voltage transmission asset, which will connect the wind farm to the onshore electricity transmission system.
The Ofgem Group is made up of Ofgem, the regulator and Ofgem E-Serve, the delivery arm.
Ofgem E-Serve focuses on administering Government environmental programmes such as the renewables obligation, carbon emission reduction target, and community energy saving programme.
Ofgem did not confirm when a preferred bidder will be selected.