Belgian contractor DEME Offshore has been selected by the ENGIE Solutions-Iemants joint venture to transport and install the jackets and topsides for the Hollandse Kust (noord) and (west Alpha) offshore substations. The contract also includes scour protection activities.
The Hollandse Kust (noord) and Hollandse Kust (west Alpha) will be the fifth and sixth standardised 700 MW grid connections for offshore wind energy in the Netherlands, built and operated by TenneT.
TenneT awarded the ENGIE Solutions-Iemants joint venture the contracts for the engineering, procurement, construction and offshore installation of the two substations during 2020. DEME Offshore has already worked together with ENGIE Solutions and Iemants combination on the Belgian SeaMade and UK Moray East offshore wind farms.
In September 2020, a start was made on the fabrication of the topside for the Hollandse Kust (noord) platform. The steel production takes place at Smulders’ facilities in Arendonk and Balen in Belgium. Heerema Fabrication Group will supply the jacket for the platform.
Installation of the scour protection and jacket for Hollandse Kust (noord) is planned for the second half of 2021, while the topside for Hollandse Kust (noord) and jacket for (west Alpha) will be installed during the summer of 2022. The topside for Hollandse Kust (west Alpha) will be installed in 2023. The offshore platforms Hollandse Kust (noord) and Hollandse Kust (west Alpha) platforms will be operational by respectively 2023 and 2024.
Onshore connection
The future Hollandse Kust (noord) offshore wind farm is planned some 18.5 km off the Dutch west coast while the Hollandse Kust (west) will be located at some 50 km off the west coast. The wind farms are connected to land via one offshore cable route wich lands in Wijk aan Zee. From here the onshore cable route will run to the existing high-voltage substation along the A9 at Beverwijk, via a new transformer station near Tata Steel. NRG started with the drilling activities in January this year. The first casing pipes for the land cables are now in place. Later in the project, the cables will be pulled into these pipes to connect the wind farms to the onshore grid.
