The tender, which will be worth £1.8 billion (€2.12 billion), is the second to be launched by Ofgem and is expected to be resolved in the second quarter of 2011. It consists of links to the Gwynt-y-Mor, Lincs and London Array offshore projects.
The first round for 2GW covering seven projects was won by Balfour Beatty Capital, Macquerie Capital and Transmission Capital Partners.
Further tenders for the Humber Gateway, Race Bank and West of Duddon Sands projects are expected to begin in spring 2011.
Ofgem’s chief executive Alistair Buchanan, said: "Britain needs to attract £200 billion of investment in its energy industry over the next 10 years - £20 billion will be for offshore transmission links."
UK energy minister Charles Hendry said: "We have 40% of Europe’s wind and we have 11,000 km of coastline. We ought to be using those resources for our future energy security, but to do this we need to get the investment in the infrastructure that will make this happen."
Earlier this year, Hendry said new investment of around £75billion-to-£100billion is required to fund the government’s ambition to generate 50GW from offshore wind by 2020.
