First Hollandse Kust Zuid Offshore Substation Topside Leaves Dubai

The first of two High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) offshore transformer station topsides that Petrofac is delivering for the Dutch-German transmission grid operator TenneT has left the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The 700 MW Alpha topside was built at Drydocks World’s fabrication facility in Dubai.

It will form part of the Hollandse Kust Zuid (HKZ) grid connection, that will connect the 1.5 GW offshore wind farm with the Dutch mainland.

Elie Lahoud, Chief Operating Officer – Engineering & Construction at Petrofac, said: ”The safe and successful completion of the first topside fabrication and it’s departure from the UAE is another milestone in this important renewable energy project. Collaboration has been key and together with Drydocks World, our focus remains firmly on the delivery of the second topside for its departure next year. We will then look forward to successful grid connection, to the full satisfaction of our client TenneT.”

The fabrication of the 3,800-tonne topside, which started in 2020, has been completed with a safety record of 2.57 million work hours without any lost time incident (LTI), Petrofac said.

”Despite the challenges and setbacks as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic during construction, we delivered the Alpha topside timely to finalize the connection of the offshore wind farm to the Dutch grid as planned,” Capt. Rado Antolovic Phd, CEO of Drydocks World said.

”Our focus will now be geared towards completing and handing over the HKZ Beta topside in the first quarter of 2022. We are committed to enable renewable energy, and will continue to play an active role in creating a more environmentally conscious future.”

Heavy lift and transport specialist Mammoet was commissioned to perform the weighing, transport and load-out.

”With the load-out and sail away of the Alpha topside to its final destination, we move forward to the next stage of the project; the installation of the topside on the jacket, which is already installed on the seabed. Our collaboration in the UAE has laid a solid foundation for the teamwork that is required for the upcoming offshore stage of the project to connect the wind farm in a safe manner,” Marco Kuijpers, Director Large Project Offshore at TenneT, said.

Covering an area of over 235 square kilometres, HKZ is a designated renewable energy wind farm zone, located about 20 kilometres off the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland.

Developed by Vattenfall, the HKZ wind farm will be connected to two 700 MW offshore substations, the HKZ Alpha and HKZ Beta. Petrofac is responsible for the complete engineering, procurement, construction, and offshore installation of both.