The Netherlands – The 700 megawatt grid link at Hollandse Kust (noord) has been provided by TenneT. The 69 wind turbines of the wind farm off the coast of Egmond aan Zee can now be connected to the high-voltage national grid by Crosswind.
Since 2016, TenneT has been in charge of running the offshore grid. In other words, TenneT makes sure that offshore wind farms are connected to the onshore electrical system through the offshore infrastructure. In order to achieve this, the grid operator is implementing five regular 700 megawatt grid connections.
Since 2019, TenneT has provided a connection from the water to the land each year. TenneT will provide the fifth and last 700 megawatt link from the Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap this year with Hollandse Kust (noord). Hence, 4.7 gigawatts is the total installed capacity of all offshore wind farms.
On March 31, all of the tests for this link were finished. It is now officially finished connecting the high-voltage substation along the A9 highway in Beverwijk to the offshore transformer platform.
Cables
Underground cables were also installed on the ground as part of the project for the Hollandse Kust (west Alpha) and (west Beta) wind farms. This April, the final piece of the second sea cable will be installed for “west Alpha.” The topside in the jacket, which has been situated 50 kilometres off the coast of Egmond aan Zee since last year, will be installed by the network operator this summer.
The construction of the west Beta cables will begin on the Velsen beach in the fall. The connections for Hollandse Kust (west Alpha) and Hollandse Kust (west Beta) wind farms will be ready in 2024 and 2026, respectively.
