The firms will now take part in a competitive tender to operate high-voltage transmission links with nine planned offshore windfarms.
Energy regulator Ofgem revealed the list today for nine high-voltage transmission links with the potential to connect up to 2,000 megawatts of renewable electricity.
The tender round will run until March/April 2010 when the successful firms will be announced.
Ofgem’s Chief Executive Alistair Buchanan, said: "Offshore generation has a crucial role to play if Britain is to meet its climate change targets. That is why selecting the first thirteen firms to bid for the ownership and operation of £1.15 billion of high-voltage transmission links is so important.
ADVERTISEMENT"The quality of the firms selected for the tender round shows how strong the competition is to operate these offshore transmission links."
A second round for assets that are built, under construction, or at an advanced preconstruction stage, will be held in summer 2010. Companies which are successful in both of these tender rounds will take ownership of the transmission link once it is constructed. They will then run it and in return will receive a stable, regulated income for 20 years.
Bidders that have qualified to proceed to the Qualification to Tender stage are:
ABN Amro Infrastructure Capital Management Ltd
Balfour Beatty Capital Limited
DONG Energy Sales and Distribution A/S
Equitix (a consortium of Equitix and AMP)
ESB International Limited
Frontier Power Consortium (a consortium of Frontier Power Limited and Infracapital Partners LP)
Imera Limited
Macquarie Capital Group Limited
National Grid Offshore Limited
RWE Npower plc
SSE Offshore Transmission Limited
A consortium of Stakraft UK Limited and StatoilHydro UK Holdings Limited
Transmission Capital Partners (a consortium of International Public Partnerships Limited, Transmission Capital Limited and Amber Infrastructure Limited)
change:healthcare chosen to support research effortFive chase £120m Network Rail office development
