International Public Partnerships (INPP) as part of a consortium has been granted a long-term licence, by the UK energy regulator Ofgem, to operate an offshore transmission project.
INPP said the Transmission Capital Partners consortium - which includes Amber Infrastructure Group and Transmission Investment – has successfully reached financial close for the operation of the transmission link to the 402MW Dudgeon offshore wind farm (OFTO), off the coast of Cromer in North Norfolk.
Ofgem granted the licence, following a tender process, to TC Dudgeon OFTO to own and operate the £297.9m (€342.1m) high-voltage transmission link to the Dudgeon offshore wind farm for the next 20 years.
As part of the tender process, TC Dudgeon OFTO agreed to purchase the link and transmission assets from a consortium comprising Equinor ASA, Masdar and China Resources Holdings which also owns the Dudgeon offshore wind farm.
INPP, the listed infrastructure investment firm, said it will make a £46m investment for all the equity and subordinated debt in the holding company TC Dudgeon OFTO. The other members of the consortium will act as technical and asset management specialists.
Dudgeon OFTO transmits clean power to over 410,000 UK homes by generating electricity using 67 6MW offshore wind turbines.
Dudgeon OFTO is the seventh UK offshore transmission project in INPP’s portfolio. In total, the company’s offshore wind farm investments transmit around 1.5GW of renewable electricity – or roughly 10% of the UK’s current installed and operational wind capacity.
Rupert Dorey, the chairman of International Public Partnerships said: “As our seventh OFTO investment, the company and its consortium has played a pivotal role in the development of offshore transmission into a low-risk, investible green technology.
”With the commencement of the next round of Ofgem’s competitive OFTO tenders, we look forward to maintaining the balance that our stake in UK electricity transmission brings to the Company’s portfolio by continuing to generate durable, low-risk and inflation-linked returns for our investors.”
Dorey added that this investment is further evidence of the company’s ability to continue originating an attractive pipeline of investment opportunities with PPP-style characteristics.
