TenneT awards contracts for 22 GW of North Sea offshore wind systems

March 30 (Renewables Now) - TenneT announced on Thursday that it has awarded multi-year agreements to three teams of suppliers to establish grid connection systems for 22 GW of combined offshore wind capacity in the North Sea.

The Netherlands-based transmission system operator (TSO) has tasked the partnerships of Hitachi Energy/Petrofac, GE/Sembcorp Marine (SMOP) and GE/McDermott with commissioning eight Dutch and three German grid connections of 2 GW each by 2031.

This will set a new global market standard for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) systems, which, with a larger capacity of 2 GW per system, reduces the number of grid connections required. General Electric Co (NYSE:GE) referred to TenneT's 2-GW programme as “one of the most important infrastructure projects of the century.”

The combined value of the 11 orders amounts to EUR 23 billion (USD 24.9bn). GE said separately that the contracts awarded to its two consortia are valued at EUR 10 billion in total.

Under a framework agreement, Hitachi Energy and Petrofac Ltd (LON:PFC) will deliver five Dutch projects that will be connected in Borssele (IJmuiden Ver Alpha and Nederwiek 1), Eemshaven (Doordewind 1 and Doordewind 2) and Geertruidenberg or Moerdijk (Nederwiek 3). In addition, the pair will also realise the German connection LanWin5 in Rastede.

Petrofac said that the first contract under the framework has already been awarded and it concerns the Ijmuiden Ver Alpha project. Work on the second, Nederwiek 1, is expected to come later in 2023, while the rest should be awarded in the period 2024-2026.

“We have already secured key resource and the yard capacity required to expedite the first two projects in TenneT’s ground-breaking programme,” commented Sami Iskander, Petrofac’s group CEO. Niklas Persson, managing director of Hitachi Energy’s Grid Integration business, added that the company is already hiring to expand its global delivery capacity.

Meanwhile, the consortium of Sembcorp Marine Offshore Platforms Pte Ltd (SMOP) and GE Renewable Energy’s Grid Solutions business will handle three Dutch projects that will be connected in Maasvlakte, Rotterdam – namely IJmuiden Ver Beta, IJmuiden Ver Gamma and Nederwiek 2.

In turn, GE and McDermott will execute the German projects BalWin4 and LanWin1 that will be connected in Unterweser.

TenneT said it expects to soon award the projects BalWin3 and LanWin4, both connecting to the onshore grid in Wilhemshaven, along with LanWin2 in Heide.

The grid operator noted that with 40 GW of capacity, it will account for nearly two-thirds of the 65 GW offshore wind energy target by 2030 agreed last May by Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.084)