A competition has opened for investors to own and operate the offshore transmission infrastructure that will connect the Hornsea Project Three wind farm to Britain’s electricity grid. The regulator launched Tender Round 14 on Wednesday 21 October, with an estimated value of about £3.5 billion.
The round covers one project: Hornsea Project Three, a large offshore wind farm being built in the North Sea. The competition concerns its transmission assets, rather than ownership of the wind farm itself. Investors will compete for a licence to own and operate the connection, which includes cables and offshore and onshore substations.
Live tender guidance says the project has met the qualifying requirements and entry conditions. The process now seeks suitable bidders before the later stages of competition. The regulator has not identified a winning bidder, and the launch is not a transfer of the assets: that would follow the assessment and selection process.
How the ownership model works
Under the offshore transmission owner, or OFTO, regime, wind-farm developers build the transmission assets and those assets are sold to the successful bidder through the competitive process. The owner then finances, operates and maintains the link. In return, the successful bidder receives a long-term, inflation-linked revenue stream, for up to 25 years, subject to asset availability and performance.
The framework separates the generation project from the infrastructure that carries electricity to shore. It is designed to bring specialist transmission investors into the operation of completed connections, while competition for the licence is intended to put pressure on costs and standards. The £3.5bn figure is an estimate for this tender round, not a final sale price or a confirmed public expenditure commitment.
The regulator says the regime has brought more than £10bn of investment into links connecting 28 offshore wind farms since it began in 2009. That is the regulator’s account of the broader programme; it does not describe the outcome of this new round, which is only at its launch stage.
A link for a project still under construction
Hornsea 3 is located more than 100 kilometres offshore in the North Sea. The project is under construction and is due for completion by the end of 2027. The regulator projects that it could supply electricity equivalent to the needs of 3.3 million UK homes. Those are prospective figures, not evidence that the wind farm is already operating or producing power.
The timing of the tender gives investors an opportunity to compete for the transmission link while the generation project is still being built. The eventual owner will be responsible for keeping the connection available and maintaining its equipment, but the transfer and operational performance remain future steps. The launch notice does not set out when the competition will conclude.
For the electricity system, offshore transmission is the bridge between generation at sea and the onshore network. The route for Hornsea 3 is one component of the wider infrastructure required to bring offshore renewable electricity to homes and businesses. The competition’s practical test will be whether bidders can finance and operate that specific connection efficiently while meeting the licence conditions.
Further North Sea transmission assets are expected to come through the framework in future. For now, Round 14 is confined to Hornsea Project Three, and the immediate milestone is the start of a process to identify and assess potential owners—not the completion of the wind farm or its grid link.
