The developers behind the Walney 2 offshore wind farm in the UK have sold the project’s transmission assets to comply with a new regulatory regime.
Dong Energy, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and OPW have sold the transmission link connecting the 183 MW wind farm to the UK grid to Blue Transmission Walney 2 Limited, a licensee entity created by a consortium of Macquarie Capital Group and Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management.
The disposal is in line with regulations drawn up by the UK energy regulator, Ofgem, requiring offshore wind farm generators to divest their transmission assets to new offshore transmission owners via a competitive tender run by Ofgem. Walney has sold the link for £110 million.
The new regulatory regime implemented by Ofgem is designed to ensure that offshore transmission links for wind farms are built and connected on schedule and are run efficiently.
In Germany – where the network operator is responsible for connecting offshore wind farms to the grid – projects have been subject to substantial delays as a result of the financial and technical challenges of building offshore links.
Dong Energy and Blue Transmission Walney 2 have agreed upon an operation and maintenance contract for the transmission assets.
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