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Developers will have to wait until early September to discover if their bids have been successful in the latest Contracts for Difference (CfD) allocation round (AR6).
It had originally been hoped that the auctions could be completed by the end of June or in July.
However, National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) has confirmed that at least one non-qualifying applicant has lodged an appeal with Ofgem.
This means the remaining stages of AR6 will run to timeline scenario five, the longest timeline outlined at the start of the process.
The ESO informed relevant applicants of the outcome of their non-qualification review on 11 June.
Applicants that remained non-qualifying following ESO’s determination had the opportunity to submit an appeal to Ofgem from 12 to 18 June.
Ofgem will now consider any appeals between 27 June and 24 July.
Qualifying applicants will now submit their sealed bids at the start of August with results due on 3-4 September and the entire process slated to wrap up between 19 September and 2 October.
More than £1 billion of annual subsidies will be made available in the upcoming CfD auctions, the government has announced, with £800 million up for grabs in the pot 3 auction for offshore wind.
The budget for the pot 1 auction for mature technologies such as onshore wind and solar will be £120 million, while £105 million of yearly subsidies will be offered in the pot 2 auction for less-established technologies, including floating offshore wind.
The overall budget of £1 billion is the largest to date and more than quadruple the amount available in the previous auction round.
DESNZ has also confirmed the maximum strike prices available for different technologies. The administrative strike price for offshore wind has been raised from £44/MWh to £73/MWh, and from £116/MWh to £176/MWh for floating projects. The cap for solar farms has also been bumped from £47/MWh to £61/MWh.
The increase comes after no offshore wind projects entered last year’s auctions due a spike in supply chain costs.
As much as 12.2GW worth of offshore wind projects could bid in the next auction.
Project pipelines shared with Utility Week by industry analysts and trade bodies show that around 8GW of offshore wind projects already have secured planning consent, with the 4.1GW Berwick Bank project awaiting sign off on its planning application.
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