The Netherlands: TenneT Converter Platform Connected at Dockyard Zwijndrecht

At Easter Sunday two separate decks of TenneT’s 80 metres high offshore converter platform were successfully mounted on each other in the yard of Heerema Factory Group in Zwijndrecht.

The platform of Dolwin1 is currently being built by Heerema Factory Group, subcontractor of TenneT’s main contractor ABB. The HVDC Light converter platform will be installed in the German North Sea later this year and is one of the main components of the TenneT DC offshore grid connection ‘Dolwin1’. The platform will connect the offshore wind farms Borkum West II, Borkum Riffgrund 1 and MEG Offshore 1. The platform is 45 metres wide, 77 metres long and approx. 80 metres high (from the waterline to the top of the crane). After completion of the platform frame, highly sensitive high voltage and HVDC Light converter equipment from ABB will be installed before it will be transported over sea for installation in the German North Sea.

 DolWin1

The project Dolwin1 will be an offshore grid connection with a capacity of 800 MW and 165 kilometres long (75 km sea cable and 90 km land cable). Via a converter station on land (Dörpen West) the offshore grid connection will be connected to the onshore high voltage grid. The connection is due to be in operation in 2013.

 TenneT enables the Energiewende

TenneT delivers as an international grid operator for electricity an essential contribution to the transition to sustainable energy supply in Germany, by bringing wind energy from sea to land and by strengthening its onshore net. Currently, TenneT is working on nine projects to connect wind farms in the German North Sea. These projects total to 5,000 megawatt of renewable electricity, enough energy to supply 5 million households. With these projects TenneT delivers an extraordinary contribution of 5,5 billion euro to the transition to sustainable energy supply.

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Offshore WIND staff, April 10, 2012; Image: tennet