TenneT socket installed for West Beta wind farm
TenneT’s socket is intended for the wind farm that RWE/OranjeWind will have built at sea in the coming years.
Image credit: TenneT
Netherlands, Egmond aan zee/Arnhem: On behalf of TenneT, the undercarriage (jacket) for the Hollandse Kust (west Beta) transformer platform was successfully placed on the seabed off the North Holland coast. The topside will be installed next year. Wind farm operator RWE/OranjeWind can then connect the wind farm, to be built at sea in a few years, to this socket.
After being sailed on a floating pontoon from the port of Vlissingen to its destination around 53 km off the coast of Egmond aan Zee, the 2100-tonne steel jacket, 49 meters high, was lifted from the pontoon and placed on the seabed. It is anchored at the four corner points using piles driven over 50 meters into the seabed, which are placed in large tubes of 10 meters welded to the feet of the chassis. With regular maintenance, the construction has a minimum lifespan of up to 40 years. Special equipment has been installed on the jacket to measure the skewness after installation.
From the beach at Velsen, contractor NBOS (Boskalis/Orient Cable) is installing the sea cables that will connect the socket to the electricity grid in 2025. These cables (220 kV) are laid at a safe depth and connected to the land cables behind the dunes. Through this connection, the electricity ultimately ends up in the high-voltage grid at the correct voltage (380 kV) via the transformer station in Wijk aan Zee.
TenneT’s socket is intended for the wind farm that RWE/OranjeWind will have built at sea in the coming years. The jacket (undercarriage) and the topside (superstructure) are built by Equans/Smulders. Green energy will be brought ashore via the 700 MW grid connection at Velsen, making approximately 3.3 TWh of sustainable electricity available. This roughly corresponds to the annual consumption of 1 million households.
Source: TenneT
#Hollandse Kust (west Beta)#Netherlands#offshore wind#OranjeWind#Renewables#RWE#Tennet#wind farm