TenneT publiced the financial results in the first half year of 2021. The TSO’s financial performance remained solid. Both underlying revenue and EBIT increased, compared to the first half year of 2020. The company also increased its investment in the Dutch and German high-voltage grid and issued its largest ever (EUR 1.8 billion) and first green triple tranche Eurobond transaction.
The transmission system operator (TSO) was able to maintain a high security of supply of 99.99 percent for its 42 million Dutch and German end users. Underlying revenue of EUR 2,568 million increased by 10.7% compared to 2020 (EUR 2,319 million), mainly driven by a growing asset base and additional compensation for grid-related expenses, the company said. Underlying EBIT increased by EUR 17 million to EUR 431 million in the first half of 2021 (first half 2020: EUR 414 million).
In May 2021, S&P and Moody’s confirmed TenneT’ s A- / A3 long-term unsecured credit ratings. In the same month, TenneT issued its largest ever (EUR 1.8 billion) and first green triple tranche Eurobond transaction. The TSO currently has currently over EUR 12 billion of green debt issued across different debt formats in Europe.
Increased investment in high-voltage grid
TenneT invested EUR 1,615 million in the Dutch and German high-voltage grids in the first half of 2021, a 14.7% increase compared to the first half of 2020 (EUR 1,408 million).
Manon van Beek, CEO: “As Europe’s first cross-border TSO with expected annual investments to grow to EUR 5-6 billion, TenneT aims to achieve a timely delivery of onshore and offshore extensions and investments. Our energy system is undergoing a revolutionary development in which the high voltage electricity grids – the backbone of the energy system – are being used in a completely different way. Once built to meet the demand for energy, now it is changing into a multifunctional connector of electricity supply, demand and storage.”
Several thousand kilometers of new connections came and will come into operation in 2021, are under construction or are in the planning phase. In the Netherlands TenneT connected the 383 MW Fryslân Wind Farm in the IJsselmeer. A 55 kilometer long underground cable was used to connect the wind farm to the electricity grid. This is the longest underground high-voltage (110 kV) cable connection in the Netherlands.
In April, crucial parts of the new high-voltage (380 kV) connection between Borssele and Rilland were installed. This power highway is essential for transporting the electricity of the existing and future wind farms in the North Sea in the southwest of the Netherlands. In addition, the new connection is important for the exchange of electricity with Belgium. The connection will be commissioned in 2023.
According to planning the second jacket of TenneT’s offshore transformer platform for the wind farm Hollandse Kust (zuid) has been installed. TenneT is realizing 3.5 GW of offshore grid connections for wind farms at the Dutch North Sea until 2023 using the same type of 700 MW transformer platform five times. Until 2030, TenneT is building 11.6 GW of offshore connection capacity for large offshore wind farms in the Netherlands.
In the first 6 months of 2021, TenneT continued developing the new 2GW standard for the IJmuiden Ver and BalWin
projects. The company expects to commence the tender processes for the main contracts of the IJmuiden Ver and BalWin projects during the remainder of the year.
TenneT also communicated the offshore numbers for the first six months. TenneT’s offshore grid connections in the Dutch part of the North Sea transported 2.38 TWh. This is over 30 percent more than in all of 2020 (1.82 TWh). Another 1.5 TWh was directly fed into the national TenneT grid from Dutch offshore wind farms in the first half of 2021.
Progress in Germany
In Germany, NordLink, a 1,400 MW subsea DC cable between Germany and Norway, is now fully in operation, ensuring the exchange of large amounts of sustainable power and additional security of electricity supply. Progress is also made on TenneT’s two largest onshore DC corridor projects SuedLink and SuedOstLink which will be built completely underground and are crucial to transport northern wind production to meet demand for electricity in southern Germany. For SuedOstLink the orders for the converters were placed. For SuedLink partnering transmission system operators TenneT and TransnetBW welcomed the completion of the federal spacial planning. With this procedure, the Federal Network Agency (‘Bundesnetzagentur’) has made the almost 700-kilometer corridor of SuedLink binding. Source: TenneT
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