West of Duddon Sands (WoDS) Transmission, a 50/50 joint venture of Macquarie and 3i Infrastructure, has secured permits from the UK Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) to own and operate the £269m transmission link to the 389MW West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm.
The project is the final offshore transmission scheme under the second tender round of the offshore transmission owner (OFTO) regime.
The offshore regulatory regime, which has been initiated by DECC and Ofgem in 2009, has delivered over £2.5bn investment to date, including £1.4bn in the second tender round.
Ofgem CEO Dermot Nolan said: "With the license granted for West of Duddon Sands, the OFTO regime has attracted over £2.5bn of new investment into the UK transmission sector to date.
"The regulatory frameworks devised by Ofgem are key to attracting the new nvestment needed to extend grid networks to connect renewable energy projects, and to enable planned interconnectors with European partners to be built."
"This model is helping drive down costs for consumers."
The grants to own and operate the assets for the next 20 years comes after WoDS agreed to acquire the West of Duddon Sands transmission assets from Dong Energy and ScottishPower Renewables.
The sale included the onshore substation, export cables and the offshore substation.
The wind project is supported by the EIB’s project bond credit enhancement product to help reduce costs for consumers for connecting offshore wind farms with the onshore grid.
Commissioned in 2014, the West of Duddon Sands farm features 108 Siemens turbines, and is located approximately 14km off Walney Island, Cumbria, in the Irish Sea.
Image: The West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm features 108 turbines. Photo: courtesy of Scottish Power Ltd.