Topside fabrication begins for Hollandse Kust (west Beta) offshore wind farm
Offshore staff
BELGIUM — At the Equans yard in Hoboken, Belgium, the joint venture Equans – Iemants (subsidiary of steel construction company Smulders) and TenneT started the cutting of the first steel for the topside of the offshore transformer station for the Hollandse Kust (west Beta) wind farm zone.
The JV partners and TenneT kicked off the steel fabrication for the Hollandse Kust (west Beta) topside Dec. 9. The pieces that were cut (nodes and plate girders) are the first building blocks for the topside. Steel fabrication will now continue at the Smulders’ facilities in Arendonk, Balen and Hoboken.
The Hollandse Kust (west Beta) platform is the third consecutive platform that the JV of Equans and Iemants is building for TenneT.
The JV started the design works for the topside, jacket and piles after the contract award. Assembly of the topside will start at the Smulders’ facilities in early 2023, after which the topside deck sections will be transferred to the Equans yard in Hoboken. There, they will be coupled and subsequently the installation of all the auxiliary systems and the integration of the free issued medium and high-voltage equipment can commence.
The final outfitting, commissioning and testing will take place from the second half of 2023 until the beginning of 2025, after which the topside will be installed offshore.
The jacket fabrication also has started with the production of the tubulars and is planned to be completed at the Smulders’ yards by beginning of 2024. Offshore installation of the jacket will take place in the first half of 2024.
The substation for Hollandse Kust (west Beta) is scheduled to be fully offshore commissioned by the third quarter of 2025.
In 2021, the joint venture Equans - Iemants and TenneT signed the contract for the offshore transformer substation Hollandse Kust (west Beta), with a commencement date given in July 2022. The joint venture was already awarded the contract for the Hollandse Kust (noord) and (west Alpha) substations, of which the Hollandse Kust (noord) platform is already installed at sea and is being commissioned offshore. The Hollandse Kust (west Alpha) platform is being finalized at the Equans yard in Hoboken. All contracts include the engineering, procurement, construction, offshore installation, connection and testing of the offshore transformer substation and are the result of a European call for tenders issued by TenneT in 2019.
About Hollandse Kust (west Beta)
The Hollandse Kust (west Beta) wind farm will have a capacity of 700 MW and will be commissioned in 2026. The offshore grid Hollandse Kust (west Beta) is the total grid connection from wind farm Hollandse Kust (west Beta) to the new transformer station in Wijk aan Zee. From there, the power goes via underground cables to the high-voltage substation along the A9 motorway in Beverwijk. This high-voltage substation is part of the national high-voltage grid (Noordring 380 kV).
12.12.2022
