Ofgem Announces Bids for Offshore Engineering Project

Ofgem has announced several opportunities for engineering jobs for an offshore project building transmission links for developing offshore windfarm projects. The contract is reportedly worth £1.15 billion and so far over 13 companies have entered into the bid for the job.

Ofgem has said that all bids have been entered and the energy watchdog is set to announce the winner of the contract in the spring of 2010.

The high voltage cables will be capable of connecting up to 2,000 MW of harnessed offshore wind energy and will be connected to a series of nine offshore windfarms which are being currently developed in the UK. The cables will link each wind farm with the UK’s national grid.

The scheduled offshore wind farms are aimed at fulfilling government targets set recently, which will require 33 GW of the UK’s energy to come from renewable offshore wind sources by 2020. Some of the companies which are in bids for the contract include National Grid Offshore, RWE npower, and Balfour Beatty.

Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem’s chief executive, stated that the competition for the contract was strong as several quality firms had applied for the job to operate the transmission links. A second round of bidding will take place in summer 2010, after the project reaches the preconstruction stage and will involve assets for the project. Companies which successfully make it through both rounds of bidding will retain contracts for the cables for no less than a twenty-year period. The contract will allow them to operate the cable as well as receive a regulated profit.