The first steel was cut on Friday, December 9, for the topside of TenneT's offshore transformer station for the Hollandse Kust (west Beta) wind farm zone.
A first steel cut ceremony was held at the Equans yard in Hoboken, Belgium, marking the start of the steel fabrication for the Hollandse Kust (west Beta) topside. Smulders' Iemants subsidiary and Equans are responsible for the topside fabrication.
The pieces that were cut (nodes and plate girders) are the first building blocks for the topside. Steel fabrication will now continue at the Smulders’ facilities in Arendonk, Balen, and Hoboken.
Wim Ten Hoff, JV Project Manager for Equans – Iemants: “An important milestone is reached with the first steel cut for Hollandse Kust (west Beta). This platform is the 3rd consecutive platform that the joint venture of Equans and Iemants is building for TenneT. Building on the excellent relationship with TenneT and its suppliers, the joint venture is confident to also make this project a success and deliver the platform according to the agreed project goals.”
Guus Siteur, project manager for the Hollandse Kust (noord) and (west Alpha) (west Beta) platform: "With the platform installed at sea this autumn for the Hollandse Kust (noord) wind farm and the construction of the platform for the Hollandse Kust (west Alpha) wind farm at the Hoboken yard, this is the third the platform (topside + jacket) to be built by the Equans - Iemants joint venture. We are happy to continue this successful cooperation."
The joint venture started the design work for the topside, jacket, and piles after the contract was awarded.
Assembly of the topside will start at the Smulders’ facilities in early 2023, after which the topside deck sections will be transferred to the Equans yard in Hoboken.
There, they will be coupled and subsequently the installation of all the auxiliary systems and the integration of the free issued medium & high voltage equipment can start.
The final outfitting, commissioning, and testing will take place from the second half of 2023 until the beginning of 2025, after which the topside will be installed offshore.
The jacket foundation
The jacket fabrication has also started with the production of the tubulars and is planned to be completed at the Smulders’ yards by the beginning of 2024.
Offshore installation of the jacket will take place in the first half of 2024. The substation for Hollandse Kust (west Beta) is scheduled to be fully offshore commissioned by the third quarter of 2025.
In 2021, the joint venture between Equans - Iemants and TenneT signed the contract for the offshore transformer substation Hollandse Kust (west Beta), with a start date given in July 2022.
The joint venture had already been awarded the contract for the Hollandse Kust (noord) and (west Alpha) substations, of which the Hollandse Kust (noord) platform is already installed at sea and is currently being commissioned offshore.
The Hollandse Kust (west Alpha) platform is currently being finalized at the Equans yard in Hoboken, Belgium.
All contracts include the engineering, procurement, construction, offshore installation, connection, and testing of the offshore transformer substation and are the result of a European call for tenders issued by TenneT in 2019.