Offshore staff
HOBOKEN, Belgium – A joint venture between ENGIE Solutions – Iemants (a subsidiary of Smulders) and TenneT have cut first steel for the topsides of the offshore transformer station for the Hollandse Kust (west Alpha) wind farm cluster in the Dutch North Sea.
The nodes and plate girders are the first building blocks for the topsides. Steel fabrication will now continue at Smulders’ facilities in Arendonk, Balen, and Hoboken.
Assembly of the topsides will get under way at the Smulders’ facilities next month. The topsides deck sections will then be transferred to the ENGIE Solutions yard in Hoboken for installation of all auxiliary systems and integration of medium and high-voltage equipment, starting in 4Q.
Final outfitting, commissioning, and testing will take place from March 2022. Sail away is scheduled for summer 2023, after which the topsides will be installed at the offshore location.
Fabrication of the jacket fabrication will begin shortly, with the structure due to be installed offshore in summer 2022. The transformer substation for Hollandse Kust (west Alpha) should be fully offshore commissioned during 3Q 2023.
The same joint venture is working on the Hollandse Kust (noord) substation, with assembly in progress at ENGIE Solutions’ yard in Hoboken.
Both contracts include the engineering, procurement, construction, offshore installation, connection, and testing of the offshore transformer substation. Each of the three Hollandse Kust platforms (the other is west Beta) will be capable of generating 700 MW for supply to the Netherlands’ grid.
06/11/2021
