The three owners of the 630MW London Array (pictured) have agreed to sell a transmission link to the offshore wind farm for £459 million.

Four bidders competed to own and operate the link through Ofgem’s tender process and Blue Transmission London Array was granted the licence for the biggest offshore project in the world, which was officially opened last month.

Blue Transmission – made up of Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management Limited and Diamond Transmission, a UK subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation – will now maintain and operate the links for the next 20 years.

Ofgem announced them as preferred bidders for the project – a joint venture between DONG Energy (50%), E.ON (30%) and Abu Dhabi state-backed energy firm Masdar (20%) – in September last year.

Ofgem Chairman Lord Mogg referred to the announcement as a “significant milestone”. He added: “With a value of £459 million, these are the highest value assets to have been tendered under the offshore regime to date, bringing the total value of new investment attracted into the sector to over £1 billion.

“This competitive approach is also benefitting energy consumers. Running this link will cost consumers a quarter less than previous projects.”

Half of the debt funding for the purchase was provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB).