Dubai: An offshore transformer substation that will connect an offshore wind farm with the Dutch mainland recently set sail from Dubai to the Netherlands, it was announced on Monday.
The Beta substation, also called a topside, is the second of the two high voltage alternating current (HVAC) offshore transformer station topsides to have sailed away from Drydocks World Dubai’s fabrication yard to the European country. The Alpha topside had been shipped in November 2021, while the Beta topside set sail on February 18.
Together, the two topsides will form part of the Hollandse Kust Zuid (HKZ) grid connection that will connect the wind farm with the Dutch mainland, producing enough renewable electricity to cover the annual needs of over two million households when fully operational in 2023.
The wind farm will cover an area of 235.8 sq. km and be made up of four 350MW offshore wind farms, which will be connected to two 700MW offshore substations: the already installed HKZ Alpha topside and the recently delivered HKZ Beta topside.
Capt. Rado Antolovic, CEO of Drydocks World, said: “At Drydocks World, we are committed to supporting our customers and industry with innovative low carbon and net zero solutions to energy production. As such, completing our part in the HKZ Alpha and Beta topside project is a major milestone for us and we are looking forward to working on similar projects which will help create a better and more environmentally conscious future. We look forward to seeing the installation of both platforms in Holland.”
The HKZ Alpha and Beta topside project is an end-to-end collaboration between Drydocks World, Petrofac and TenneT, committed to producing greener energy. Petrofac awarded the contract to Drydocks World to complete fabrication, commissioning and load out for two topsides, including the engineering, procurement and construction scope of HVAC systems, for client TenneT, a European grid operator.
