A consortium of VBMS and NKT Cables has secured a contract from TenneT to deliver and install two export cables for the 700MW Borssele Alpha grid link in the Dutch North Sea.

The contract covers two 61km export cables that will link the 350MW Borssele offshore wind farms 1 and 2 to the onshore grid.

The entire length of the route section from the onshore station at Borssele to the Borssele Alpha offshore transformer station is 60km.

The offshore grid connection features two 220 kV subsea cables with a capacity of 350MW each.

The cables will be installed in the seabed of the Western Scheldt estuary and will run to the onshore high-voltage station at Borssele.

VBMS and NKT will engineer, produce, install and bury the 220 kV subsea and land cables between the onshore station and the Borssele Alpha offshore platform.

The Borssele Alpha platform is due for completion in 2019, while the Borssele Beta offshore platform is anticipated to be completed by 2020.

TenneT Offshore Netherlands senior manager Marco Kuijpers said: “It is good to see that our international tender procedure was completed entirely according to plan, and in line with the ambitious cost reduction targets laid down in the National Energy Agreement.”

“Together with the VBMS/NKT consortium, we will set to work on the construction of the first large-scale offshore grid connection for wind farms in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.

“This project will make a significant contribution to the realization of the Dutch government’s ambitions for renewable electricity generation as laid down in the National Energy Agreement.’

APart from the Borssele 1 and 2 connection, TenneT said the VBMS-NKT consortium is also the intended partner for its next offshore grid connection project, Borssele Beta that will link the Borssele offshore wind farms 3 and 4.

TenneT has been officially designated as the offshore grid operator in the Netherlands. It is planning to develop a total of 3.5GW of offshore links in the Netherlands, each of 700MW by 2023.

 

Image: Officials of TenneT, VBMS and NKT Cables after signing the supply contract. Photo: Courtesy of TenneT Holding B.V.