The consortium, dubbed Gwynt y Môr OFTO, was selected for the licence after a competitive process undertaken by Ofgem. The company will now manage the link for 20 years.
The wind farm, which is expected to cost £2bn, is a joint venture owned by RWE Innogy, Stadtwerke München and Siemens.
Located in the Liverpool Bay area, about 8 miles off the North Wales coast, the wind farm features 160 Siemens 3.6MW turbines.
It features two offshore substations, 161 inter-array cables, four export cables, a 11km onshore underground cable route and a new 132kV/400kV onshore substation near St Asaph in North Wales.
The wind farm is expected to generate enough energy from renewable sources for about 400,000 households.
Gwynt y Mor is the largest offshore transmission owners project to date to be financed via the capital markets and Ofgem said the European Investment Bank’s Project Bond Credit Enhancement product has helped to deliver lower costs for consumers.
Ofgem senior partner for transmission Martin Crouch said: "With the licence granted for Gwynt y Môr OFTO, the OFTO regime has attracted over £2.2 billion of new investment into the UK transmission sector to date. This is just a part of up to £10 billion of investment in offshore and cross-border investment that we are expecting by the end of decade."
Image: Balfour Beatty and Equitix consortium will own and operate the £352m transmission link to the 576MW Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm. Photo: Courtesy of Ofgem.
