Ofgem has started inviting companies to submit bids to own and run links to two offshore wind farms, Galloper and Walney Extension.
The links to be tendered are for the Galloper wind farm off the east coast of England, and the Walney Extension wind farm in the Irish Sea.
The two links represent the second stage of the fifth tender round (TR5) for offshore transmission owners (OFTOs). TR5 is the largest tender round to date, with over 2.3GW of generation and an estimated value of £2bn.
Ofgem, which runs the tender process, will choose the most competitive bids from companies to own and run links to the offshore sites over a 20-year period.
The launch of the second stage of TR5 comes after Ofgem announced shortlists of bidders for the first phase of TR5 earlier this month.
Companies have eight weeks to enter submissions for the Galloper and Walney Extension links. Ofgem will publish bidder shortlists for each project in the summer.