The offshore transmission asset connects the Rampion offshore wind farm to the national grid at Bolney via a 16 kilometre offshore cable. The offshore transmission units in the UK are key components in supporting the UK transition towards a low carbon economy. Rampion represents the ninth Offshore Transmission Owner (‘OFTO’) Licence awarded to INPP under the competitive tender process managed by energy regulator Ofgem, for the licensing of high voltage transmission links with offshore wind farms in Great Britain.
The background
Offshore wind generation is a success story for the UK. Long-term government support has underpinned innovation and investment in the sector, helping to drive down costs while contributing to decarbonisation of the economy. The Government intends to build on the UK’s leading position with an aim to produce 40GW of offshore wind energy by 2030, up from c. 10GW in 2020. The UK has provided more support for offshore wind than any other country in the world and we anticipate that the technology will play a key role in helping the UK meet net zero by 2050.
To support this increase in offshore renewable energy generation, the Government identified that a new approach to developing transmission networks would be required and developed the offshore transmission regulatory regime. The Company recognised this opportunity and strategically positioned itself as one of the very few original consulting parties to Ofgem on the regime in 2009.
About Rampion OFTO
In November 2021, the Company successfully reached financial close on the long-term ownership and operation of the transmission link to the 400MW Rampion OFTO. The project will be the Company's ninth OFTO investment and relates to the transmission cable connection to the offshore wind farm located approximately 13km off the Sussex coast. The wind farm consists of 116 x 3.45MW wind turbine generators connected to an offshore substation platform (‘OSP’) located within the boundaries of the Rampion wind farm.
Rampion OFTO provides Rampion Wind Farm access to transmit green electricity equivalent to around 350,000 UK homes from its 116 3.45MW offshore wind turbines.
Rampion OFTO is the ninth offshore transmission asset in INPP’s OFTO portfolio, which now has the ability to transmit approximately 2.4 GW of green electricity equivalent to the electricity needs of approximately 2.1 million homes.
Facts
Project capital cost
£289.9m
Energy generation capacity supported
400 MW
Homes Powered by renewable energy
350,000
SDGs Supported
The Outcome
Project highlights include:
- Operational and immediately yielding with no construction or refinancing risk
- 20-year availability-based revenue stream with protected downside whereby potential deductions will be capped at 10% of base revenue in any year
- The operations and maintenance of the OFTO assets will be subcontracted to a set of specialist contractors incentivised to maximise availability of the transmission assets
- The returns generated from the Company's investment are highly correlated to UK RPI and are not subject to any revenue or penalty exposure to windfarm performance
- Revenues are contracted by a subsidiary of National Grid, the National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO rated Baa1 Moody’s) in their statutory ring-fenced role as electricity systems operator (‘ESO’)
- 400MW renewable energy connected to the grid
- Transmission of renewable energy to power the equivalent of 350,000 homes