The Beatrice OFTO is expected to provide green electricity equivalent to approximately 450,000 homes in the UK
The Beatrice facility is Scotland's largest offshore wind farm. Credit: Pixabay/A_Different_Perspective.
The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) has selected Transmission Capital Partners as the preferred bidder to own and operate the HV grid link for the 588MW Beatrice wind farm.
Transmission Capital Partners is a consortium comprising International Public Partnerships (INPP), Amber Infrastructure and Transmission Investment. The UK gas and electricity regulator said that the preferred bidder will become the successful offshore transmission project (OFTO) bidder, only after certain issues are resolved.
Beatrice wind farm details
The Beatrice wind farm is located in the Outer Moray Firth, 13.5km off the Caithness coastline in Scotland.
The facility features 84 7MW Siemens Gamesa wind turbines with an installed capacity of 588MW connected to two offshore substation platforms (OSP) located within the boundaries of the wind farm.
The Beatrice plant, which is Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, is the ninth transmission cable connection project for Transmission Capital Partners as the preferred bidder. The company is expected to invest up to £60m, and financial close is expected in 2020.
The Beatrice OFTO is expected to provide green electricity equivalent to approximately 450,000 homes in the UK and would increase the number of homes that are powered by the Company’s OFTO portfolio to approximately 2million homes.
In July, SSE Renewables, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Red Rock Power, the owners of Beatrice Offshore Windfarm (BOWL) with 40%, 35% and 25% stakes respectively, reached financial close for the refinancing of the offshore wind farm.
The wind farm saw the completion of the construction in May this year. The project is claimed to have been built at a cost of £2.6bn, with £1.1bn being spent in the UK and around half of this amount in Scotland.
The expenditure included CS Wind for making turbine towers, Global Energy Group for marshalling and turbine pre-assembly, Bi-Fab in Fife and on Lewis for jacket foundations and piles, Babcock Marine to produce Offshore Transformer Module topsides, JDR Cables to supply array cables and Siemens Gamesa for blade manufacturing.