The new electricity transmission assets include subsea cables, land cables, offshore substations and an onshore substation
Location of Consortium’s Offshore Transmission Assets. (Credit: Mitsubishi Corporation.)
A Japanese consortium of Mitsubishi and Chubu Electric Power have been selected as the preferred bidder for GBP1.2bn ($1.5bn) offshore transmission asset in the UK.
The new electricity transmission assets include subsea cables, land cables, offshore substations and an onshore substation which will be connected with the 1.2GW Hornsea 1 wind farm project.
Upon receiving Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO) license approval from UK’s Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), the companies will operate the electricity transmission assets for a period of 25-year.
Mitsubishi will now operate nine out of 23 offshore transmission assets in the UK
Following the acquisition of Hornsea 1 offshore wind project electric transmission link, Mitsubishi will now operate nine out of 23 offshore transmission assets in the UK, through its wholly owned subsidiaryDiamond Transmission Corporation (DTC).
The Hornsea 1 offshore wind farm, which is located in the North Sea 120km from the UK east coast, will comprise 174 wind turbines supplied by Siemens Gamesa.
Slated to be fully commissioned this year, the wind project have a lifespan of about 25 years and will generate enough electricity to power more than one million UK homes.
Mitsubishi said that the Hornsea One project will be Chubu’s second UK OFTO project after its participation in the Walney Extension project in UK.
The wind farm comprises three offshore wind generating stations and two offshore accommodation platforms.
It also includes approximately five HVAC collector substations which are connected via inter-array cables of 30kV to 70kV, about two offshore HVDC converter stations, and an offshore HVAC reactive compensation substation.