International law firm Bird & Bird has advised transmission system operator TenneT on the award of Europe’s largest contract package for security of supply, energy transition and climate protection. TenneT signed the relevant documents end of April 2023 in Berlin together with the cooperations consisting of Hitachi Energy/Petrofac, GE/Seatrium, GE/McDermott and Siemens Energy/Dragados to bring Europe’s, by then, largest ever tender process for the construction of energy infrastructure to a successful conclusion.
The total volume of the contracts for the construction of converter stations and HVDC technology (high-voltage direct current transmission) for a total of 14 grid connection systems currently amounts to around 30 billion euros. It concerns the transmission capacity of offshore wind energy in the order of 28 large power plants in the German and Dutch North Sea. An order of this magnitude establishes a global technological and production lead in Europe in a key area of future energy supply.
The cross practice Bird & Bird team supported the project under the leadership of Dr Hermann Rothfuchs, Partner and Co-Head International Energy Storage Group, Public Law (Munich), and Lars Kyrberg, Partner and Co-Head International Energy Networks & Transmission Group, Commercial (Hamburg).
