Watson, Farley & Williams has advised Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (”CIP“) in relation to its joint venture with TenneT Holding B.V. (”TenneT“) regarding the offshore grid connection DolWin3, which will transmit wind energy from the North Sea to German customers.
DolWin3 will transmit electricity to the mainland from a number of wind farms in the German North Sea and is expected to be completed in 2017. The transmission system will have a total capacity of 900 MW.
The investment in DolWin3 is a joint venture between CIP and TenneT. CIP is investing €384 million through a separate investment company (CI Artemis K/S), with PensionDanmark acting as the investor. TenneT will finance the remainder of the total construction costs, which are expected to amount to €1.9 billion. TenneT, one of the largest electricity transmission system operators in Europe and owned by the Dutch state, will build and operate DolWin3.
The investment is subject to the approval of the German competition authorities.
WFW provided a comprehensive service to CIP, advising on the formation of the joint venture and project due diligence, including matters relating to construction contracts, electricity grid regulation, unbundling, property and planning law.
CIP is a fund management company founded in 2012. Its partners have extensive experience in the field of infrastructure and energy investments. CIP’s first infrastructure fund Copenhagen Infrastructure I has funds under management of €800 million, which has been fully committed by the Danish pension fund PensionDanmark.
TenneT is Europe's first cross-border electricity transmission operator. With approximately 20,000 km of high-voltage lines and 36 million end-users in the Netherlands and Germany, TenneT ranks among the top five grid operators in Europe. The company’s focus is to develop a North-West European energy market and to integrate renewable energy.
WFW’s team was led by partner Dr. Marcus Bechtel (Corporate, Hamburg). He was supported by partners Dr. Ivana Mikesic (Regulatory, Frankfurt), Michael-Alexander Rojnic (Real Estate, Hamburg), Gerrit Bartsch (Tax, Hamburg), Sven Fretthold (Finance, Hamburg), Dr. Christian Ulrich Wolf (Corporate, Hamburg) as well as associates Dr. Christine Bader (Regulatory, Hamburg), Dr. Wolfram Böge, Carolin Woggon, Christian Gahr, Joachim Heinemann (all Corporate, Hamburg), Anastasiya Korolchenko (Regulatory, Frankfurt), Timo Kopmann (Tax, Hamburg), Alexander Schroer and Silvia Heimberg (both Real Estate, Hamburg).
Marcus Bechtel said: ”We are pleased that we had the opportunity to advise CIP on this ambitious project in a highly regulated sector. In this transaction, we have been able to prove once again WFW‘s extensive expertise regarding complex energy and infrastructure projects.”
