The grid connection for Hollandse Kust (west) Alpha offshore substation is officially ready for commissioning after receiving grid readiness certificate three months ahead of schedule.
This means that wind farm operator Ecowende can connect the wind turbines, which will be located about 50 kilometers off the coast of Egmond aan Zee, to grid operator TenneT's 'socket at sea’ as soon as they are built.
Whereas completion was scheduled for the first quarter of 2024, TenneT received the grid readiness certificate from DNV before the holidays in 2023.
This makes the grid connection of the 'socket at sea' to the national electricity grid officially ready for use after a series of extensive tests.
The Hollandse Kust (west), developed by Ecowende - a joint venture between Shell and Eneco, will consist of 52 offshore wind turbines with a combined capacity of over 760MW. The 15 MW turbines will be supplied by Vestas.
Via the cable connection coming ashore at Heemskerk/Wijk aan Zee, power has been put on this new part of the grid from the high-voltage substation along the A9 near Beverwijk.
"With this, we finished three months ahead of schedule. A fine achievement that the Equans/Smulders contractor combination can also be proud of. Both the teams at sea and on land have done a great job in recent months," TenneT interface and system integration manager Anne-Marie Taris said.
Last September, the more than 3,600-ton superstructure (topside) of the offshore socket was placed on the jacket for the substation. Almost two years earlier, the first steel cut took place in Antwerp for this second transformer platform built by Equans/Smulders for TenneT.
To remind, renewable electricity is already being fed to the grid from the first platform for wind farm Hollandse Kust (north).
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