SSE fails to make wind farm power link shortlist

Published on Monday 14 December 2009 20:26

SCOTTISH & Southern Energy (SSE) was left "surprised and disappointed" yesterday after being left off the shortlist of companies bidding to connect the UK's burgeoning offshore wind farms to the mainland gird.

Ofgem, the electricity regulator, said there had been "strong competition" to own and run the high-voltage transmission lines that will connect nine wind farms, with shortlists being unveiled yesterday for each of the links.

Six companies – Balfour Beatty, Dong Energy, Green Energy Transmission, Macquarie Capital Group, National Grid and Transmission Capital Partners – were named on the lists.

The winning companies in the initial 1 billion bidding round will be announced in May and will carry up to two gigawatts (GW) of electricity to the mainland, enough to power about two million homes.

The work is the first phase in a 15bn programme to bring in up to 33GW of power by 2020.

Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem's chief executive, said: "If Britain is to meet its climate change targets and secure energy supplies then Ofgem's Project Discovery (report] estimates that up to 200bn may need to be invested.

"The strong competition for the first round of transmission links demonstrates the value of attracting new entrants and shows that firms have confidence in the tendering process and are willing to make a substantial investment."

Ofgem said the European Investment Bank was considering making more than 300 million available for the first tender.

A spokeswoman for SSE said: "We are both surprised and disappointed not to be shortlisted, but the tender process is clearly going to be very competitive and others must believe they can derive more value from these projects than we do. We have no shortage of investment opportunities open to us and we will only pursue those that represent good value."