Specialised in the construction of offshore substations, the teams of EQUANS – offshore winds - are currently working on a transformer station for the Hollandse Kust (noord) wind farm zone for TenneT. The topside is scheduled to leave our construction yard in Hoboken in the spring of 2022 and should be operational in 2023.
The Hollandse Kust (noord), (west Alfa) and (west Beta) offshore wind farms are located in the North Sea along the Dutch coast. By 2030, 40% of the Netherlands’ electricity needs will come from offshore wind farms. TenneT will realise the grid connections for these wind farms. These three 700 MW platforms will be the fifth, sixth and seventh large-scale network connections for offshore wind energy in the Netherlands that are built and managed by TenneT.
EPCIc of offshore transformer station
The scope of work for the joint venture of the Hollandse Kust (noord) project consists of the engineering, procurement, construction, offshore installation, and commissioning (EPCIc) of the offshore transformer station. This station consists of a 45-metre-high jacket weighing 1,930 T and 870 T piles to be placed in 24-meter water depth and a topside structure consisting of 4 decks weighing approx. 4,100T. The topside structure is 47 metres long, 35 metres wide and 25 metres high.
An experienced consortium
In this project EQUANS is responsible for the final assembly: the engineering, procurement, integration, construction and commissioning (on and offshore) of all LV, MV, HV and auxiliary systems for the jacket and topside of the Hollandse Kust (noord) offshore transformer station. Smulders is responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction of the steel structures of the topside and the jacket. This is not the only project of the two JV partners. The consortium has already built and installed a large number of transformer stations and is working together on various offshore projects, e.g. for the Saint-Brieuc and Hollandse Kust West (Alfa and Beta) offshore wind farms.
Expertise in offshore
EQUANS is a reference in the construction of high-voltage stations for offshore wind turbine farms and offers a complete package of monitoring and maintenance services for these farms. The latest generation of offshore substations and their foundations are being produced in our yard in Hoboken. Together with our partners in the group, we are able to cover the whole lifecycle of our clients’ offshore wind projects: research and development, EPCIc to maintenance and monitoring of substations. EQUANS has been involved in a lot of EPCIc projects in Europe and remains active in the monitoring and maintenance of a number of platforms.
