Van Oord has laid the first sea cable for the “Dutch Offshore Grid” of grid manager Tennet. It was installed five metres below the Maas Entrance seabed. The offshore contractor had developed the remote-controlled underwater trencher Deep Dig-It especially for this project.
For the challenging crossing, the Port Authority had to close the 830-metre wide Maasgeul to ships whose draught was greater than 14.3 metres for several hours. This was done immediately after the arrival of the Pioneering Spirit in Rotterdam.
The crossing marks a successful start of construction work for the offshore part of the Dutch Offshore Grid. The remaining stretch of cable, some 42 kilometres in total, will be laid over the next few weeks.
Tennet is responsible for the offshore grid in both Germany and the Netherlands and, as a contribution to the Dutch Energy Agreement, is developing at least 3500 MW of offshore connections in a standardised concept of 700 MW per connection up to and including 2023.
A further 7000 MW of offshore wind capacity is expected to be built between 2024 and 2030, according to the new Roadmap for Wind at Sea. This will be connected to the grid by Tennet.
Picture: Once Pioneering Spirit arrived in Rotterdam, Van Oord’s Nexus got ready for the successful laying of TenneT’s cable across the Maas Entrance (by Kees Torn).
