A consortium of NKT and Royal Boskalis Westminster (Boskalis) has secured a €550m contract to supply and install export cables for Ostwind 2 offshore grid connection.
Image: High voltage cable on a turn table cable production in Cologne, Germany. Photo: Courtesy of NKT A/S.
NKT and Boskalis have secured the contract from German transmission operator 50Hertz. The scope of Boskalis’ contract, which is worth €250m, includes design and installation of about 270km of export cable to connect the planned 247MW Arcadis Ost 1 and 476MW Baltic Eagle offshore wind farms to an onshore substation in Lubmin, Germany.
The project is expected to begin next year and is planned to be completed in late 2022.
For this project, Boskalis stated that it will provide an integrated solution of services that include UXO survey, geotechnical and geophysical surveys (through its subsidiary Gardline), seabed preparation works, pre-lay run, transport and installing the 220kV export cables and seabed reinstatement.
As per Boskalis, it will use its assets such as trailing suction hopper and backhoe dredgers, geophysical and geotechnical survey vessels, cable-laying vessels and a wide range of trenching tools, for the project.
Boskalis CEO Peter Berdowski said: “We are very proud to have been selected for this contract, the largest cable installation contract ever for Boskalis.
“The fact that we are able to combine our dredging services, recently acquired survey capabilities together with our cable installation competencies demonstrates Boskalis’ ability to offer a unique breadth of services. We look forward to further expanding this position for our clients as the leading subsea cable installation contractor.”
For its part of the contract, NKT will supply the high-voltage cable system. The company will supply about 270km of 220kV high-voltage AC XLPE offshore export cable system and about 8km of 220kV high-voltage AC XLPE onshore cable system for the Ostwind 2 offshore wind farm grid connection in Germany.
NKT stated that the export cable system for Ostwind 2 will be manufactured both in Karlskrona, Sweden, and in Cologne, Germany, with production beginning in early 2020.
The wind farms connected via the Ostwind 2 grid connection are expected to be fully commissioned at the end of 2022. They will be located about 40km northeast of the German Island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea.
NKT interim CEO Roland Andersen said: “I am excited that we book our largest ever AC high-voltage export cable order with the Ostwind 2 project. This award is a recognition from 50Hertz, our customer for years, of our technology and know-how of complex high-voltage offshore projects.
“For NKT this is the first order where our customer benefits from power cables being manufactured at both our high-voltage plants. This enables more efficient production planning and more flexible deliveries for our customer.”