The France-headquartered Vallourec is supplying structural tubes for the Borssele Alpha and Beta offshore transformer stations in the Dutch North Sea.
Vallourec is providing 350t of structural hollow sections (MSH) in partnership with Dutch steel construction specialist RijnDijk for the construction of the substations.
The sections, produced in Dusseldorf Rath in Germany, will be used for the high steel supports to hold the high-voltage cables, switchgear, measuring and control units.
According to Vallourec, this is the company’s first project of this kind with its MSH sections.
National grid operator TenneT TSO selected HSM Offshore for the engineering, procurement, construction, transport, installation, connection and testing of the 700MW Borssele Alpha and the 700MW Borssele Beta transformer stations which will connect the Borssele 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 wind farms to the grid.
The Borssele Alpha and Beta platforms are the first large-scale grid connections being constructed under the National Energy Agreement for offshore wind farms in the Netherlands.
The jacket foundation for Borssele Alpha was installed at the site in August. The platform is scheduled for completion in 2019, with Borssele Beta following a year later.
Images: Vallourec