TenneT Consulting Market on Artificial Island Solution for IJmuiden Ver Area

TenneT is holding market consultation for grid connection concepts for the IJmuiden Ver wind energy area, which is farther from the coast than currently developed areas. The company is consulting on HVDC platforms and an artificial island as potential solutions.

Image: TenneT

The transmission system operator is carrying out market consultation for the grid connection concepts during Q1 2017, as it is considering how the IJmuiden Ver wind area can be connected to the Dutch onshore electricity grid from 2023 onwards. TenneT issued two calls for tenders for this purpose at the beginning of this month, for which the registration period has closed.

“This size of the wind area and the foreseen timeline will give the opportunity to develop new, innovative and efficient offshore grid connections solutions,” TenneT stated in the tender call.

With offshore HVDC platforms, the main question is how to connect 6GW of wind energy in IJmuiden Ver, which will be realised at a pace of 1GW per year as of 2024, while also achieving the lowest possible LCOE of wind energy (including grid connection, losses, reliability, O&M, etc).

Furthermore, the TSO is looking into an artificial island, introduced last year, as another solution to connect vast amount of wind energy that far offshore to the grid. Here, TenneT is investigating the technical feasibility and costs for development of the artificial island near the IJmuiden Ver area.

“To connect this wind area, substantial offshore transformer and switching installations will need to be supported. This can be done with jackets or gravity-based structures, but an artificial island could be considered as an alternative,” TenneT’s call for tenders reads.

In June 2016, TenneT unveiled its ‘hub and spoke’ concept that incorporates building of an island in the middle of the North Sea.

If built, this would set up a large European offshore electricity system that would see numerous wind farms connected to the artificial island – a total capacity of over 30 GW can be connected on an island of roughly 6 km² – from where the generated wind electricity will be distributed and transmitted over direct current cables to the North Sea countries, i.e. the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Norway, Germany and Denmark.

The same direct current cables will be serving as interconnections between the energy markets of the aforementioned countries, so besides distributing electricity generated by wind they will also be international electricity highways for international power trade – the Wind Connector, TenneT explained last year.

Offshore WIND Staff