Grid Infrastructure Fabricators Sought for Belgian Energy Island

January 18, 2023, by Adnan Durakovic

Belgian transmission system operator Elia has issued a contract notice seeking the delivery of four HVAC substation modules for the Modular Offshore Grid 2 (MOG2) energy island project in the North Sea.

The MOG2 project aims at developing new offshore grid infrastructure to connect new wind farms in the up to 3.5 GW Princess Elisabeth zone to the Belgian national grid via an energy island.

The project’s purpose is to create an energy hub in the form of an artificial island, not only to provide a means of connecting new Belgian offshore power to the mainland, but also to make optimal use of the power production areas in other parts of the North Sea by accommodating a connection point for hybrid interconnectors.

The Belgian energy island is expected to contribute to the development of a meshed network at sea that will adequately distribute the offshore production among the different consumption centers according to their needs.

The artificial island will house transmission AC infrastructure. To support these activities, the scope of the tender includes the development of the AC substations and infrastructures, including the engineering, design, supply, transport, installation, testing, commissioning, and hand-over of two 1,050 MW HVAC substation modules, and two 700 MW modules.

The tender also covers the transport, installation, and commissioning of transformers and shunt reactors; the engineering, design, supply, transport, installation, and commissioning of a utility/accommodation/warehouse module; general electrical infrastructure on the MOG2 island; and all required electrical works on the island.

The targeted execution period is between 2025 and 2029.

The tender remains open until 20 February 2023.

If built to full capacity, the Princess Elisabeth wind farm zone will raise Belgium’s installed offshore wind capacity from the current 2.26 GW to 5.8 GW by 2030.

Belgium is also one of the four EU countries that recently announced the common aim of increasing the joint offshore wind capacity to 65 GW by 2030, and 150 GW by 2050.