Belgian transmission system operator Elia has awarded Heerema Fabrication Group (HFG) with a contract for the fabrication of the Offshore SwitchYard (OSY) platform for the Modular Offshore Grid (MOG) project in the Belgian North Sea.

According to HFG, the company has recently cut the first steel at its Heerema Zwijndrecht yard in the Netherlands.

Under the contract, HFG will be in charge of the procurement, fabrication and offshore hook-up and commissioning of the OSY platform. The topside will be fabricated at the Zwijndrecht yard, with jacket fabrication taking place at the company’s specialized jacket yard in Vlissingen.

The 1,400-ton jacket will be installed in November 2018, with the topside expected to be installed in March 2019.

Koos-Jan van Brouwershaven, CEO of HFG, said: “We are very pleased with this award from Elia, which came after a very comprehensive and competitive tender process. We are looking forward to contributing to Elia’s innovative offshore grid development. For HFG this contract represents another important addition to our offshore wind portfolio.”

Located some 40km off the Zeebrugge coast, the Ramboll-designed OSY platform will connect four planned offshore wind farms to the Belgian onshore grid connection point.

MOG is scheduled to be taken into use in the third quarter of 2019.