Smulders has completed the loadout of the jacket foundation and the piles for the Hollandse Kust West Beta offshore substation in the Netherlands.
On 25 April, the piles, fabricated by the Dutch company Sif, were loaded out in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. With a total weight of 900 tonnes and a length of up to 79 metres, the piles will be used to anchor the jacket to the seabed.
At the end of last month, the 2,300 tonne jacket was transferred to the pontoon as well.
Hollandse Kust West Beta is the third and final offshore substation Smulders and Equans are constructing for the Dutch-German transmission system operator (TSO), TenneT.
The joint venture has already delivered the Hollandse Kust Noord platform, which was installed in October 2022, while the Hollandse Kust West Alpha platform was installed at its site some 50 kilometres off the coast of Egmond aan Zee in the Netherlands a year later.
The loadout of the Hollandse Kust West Beta jacket and piles marks a significant milestone as it is the first large-scale project built at Smulders yard in Vlissingen, said the company.
The substation topside is currently under construction at the Equans yard in Hoboken, Belgium.
Offshore installation of the jacket is scheduled for this year and the Hollandse Kust West Beta substation is set to be fully commissioned by the third quarter of 2025.
At the beginning of 2022, TenneT awarded a consortium comprising Boskalis and Orient Cable (NBO) a contract for the Hollandse Kust West Beta export cable , which will connect the 700 MW offshore platform to TenneT’s onshore grid in the Netherlands.