Representatives of the European transmission system operator TenneT, the Hitachi Energy/Petrofac partnership, and the three consortium partnerships GE/Sembcorp (SMOP), GE/McDermott, and Siemens Energy/Dragados met in Berlin on Thursday to sign what has been described as "Europe’s largest-ever tender award for energy transition infrastructure."
The ceremony saw the signing of the contracts for a total of 14 offshore grid connection systems in the German and Dutch North Sea. With this, TenneT has completed the process of awarding contracts for the sea- and land-based converter stations launched in August 2022.
TenneT had already awarded 11 of these systems at the end of March, eight of them in the Netherlands and three in Germany. Three more systems in Germany were added today. These 14 systems are to be realized by 2031, Tennet said.
The total volume of the contracts for the components of the 14 systems amounts to around €30 billion.
The result will be a transmission capacity of offshore wind energy in the German and Dutch North Sea that will generate as much electricity as 28 large-scale power plants, Tennet said.
Their “core components,” as part of these contracts, which are the innovative two-gigawatt technology for converting alternating current into direct current and back, will be manufactured exclusively at European production sites of the consortiums’ members in all projects.
"With a contract of this magnitude, Europe will be taking a global lead – in terms of both technology and production – in a key sector of tomorrow’s energy supply," Tennet said .
The Siemens Energy/Dragados consortium was today awarded the contracts for the German projects BalWin3, LanWin4 (both with a connection to the onshore grid in Wilhelmshaven), and LanWin2 (with a connection near Heide).
Already on March 30, 2023 GE/McDermott partnership was awarded contracts to build the relevant components for the German offshore projects BalWin4 and LanWin1, which will be connected in Unterweser. Hitachi Energy/Petrofac partnership was awarded the contracts for five Dutch projects to be connected in Borssele (IJmuiden Ver Alpha, Nederwiek 1), Eemshaven (Doordewind 1 and Doordewind 2) and Geertruidenberg or Moerdijk (Nederwiek 3). This cooperation will also realise the German connection LanWin5, which is to be connected near Rastede.
Also, in March, GE/SMOP partnership was awarded three Dutch projects to be connected in the Maasvlakte, Rotterdam (IJmuiden Ver Beta, IJmuiden Ver Gamma, and Nederwiek 2.
All agreements apply to both the offshore and onshore converter stations and the associated HVDC technology, which enables bidirectional conversion of direct and alternating current.
When Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands signed the Esbjerg Declaration at the North Sea Energy Summit in May 2022, they agreed to jointly install a capacity of at least 65 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy by 2030. TenneT, Europe’s leading offshore transmission system operator, will provide around two-thirds of this volume, or 40 GW of grid connections.
For this, TenneT is building offshore grid connection systems with a total capacity of 20 GW each in Germany and the Netherlands.
As part of its 2GW Program, TenneT has said it has developed the new global offshore standard for grid connection systems – together with leading global providers in the industry.
"This new standard combines TenneT’s extensive expertise in offshore grid development with a transnational approach. With a focus on harmonisation and standardisation of offshore grid connection systems, the program provides the necessary blueprint for the future and the necessary acceleration of the energy transition. With the increased transmission capacity of two gigawatts per system, the number of new systems can be significantly reduced compared to previous offshore grid connections. The 2GW Program thus sets new standards for the European energy transition. It will provide Europe and its residents with more green energy in a safe and cost-efficient way – with as little environmental impact as possible," TenneT said.