The sale of the transmission assets has been valued at £472.5m ($591m)
Image: Diamond Transmission Partners has acquired Race Bank wind farm. Photo: courtesy of Ørsted.
Ørsted and its partners have agreed to sell the transmission assets of the 573MW Race Bank offshore wind farm in the UK North Sea to Diamond Transmission Partners.
The transmission assets, which include the onshore substation, export cables and the offshore substation, are being acquired for £472.5m ($591m).
In June 2018, Diamond Transmission Partners was selected as the preferred bidder for the Race Bank offshore transmission license by UK-based Office of gas and electricity markets (Ofgem) following a competitive tender.
Diamond Transmission Partners is a 50:50 joint venture between Diamond Transmission Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, and HICL Infrastructure.
According to Ørsted, the sale of the assets took place in accordance with the offshore transmission owner (OFTO) regime.
Located nearly 27km off the UK east coast and operated from Ørsted’s east coast hub in Grimsby, the Race Bank wind farm features 91 units of 6MW Siemens Gamesa wind turbines.
Ownership of Race Bank wind farm
The offshore wind facility is owned by Orsted (50%), Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 5 (25%), a fund established by Sumitomo Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Development Bank of Japan (12.5%) and Arjun Infrastructure Partners and Gravis Capital Management (12.5%).
Covering a total area of 75km2, the wind farm generates enough electricity to power half a million homes in the UK annually while offsetting about 800,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions and 20,000 tonnes of SO2 emissions every year.
The wind farm, which was inaugurated in June 2018, is expected to have an average lifespan of 25 years.
Race Bank was claimed to be the 10th offshore wind farm in the UK, either owned or partially owned by Ørsted.
In October 2018, Ørsted secured approval from The Crown Estate for the development of the Race Bank Extension offshore wind farm, which was proposed to be located adjacent to the existing Race Bank wind farm.