Transformer station installed for 700 MW offshore wind project in Netherlands

The offshore transformer station of the Hollandse Kust Alpha platform has been installed on the jacket in the North Sea, about 20 kilometers off the coast of The Hague. The transformer station, also called topside, is one of the two topsides of the Hollandse Kust offshore grid, which will connect the offshore wind farm area with the same name to the Dutch onshore high-voltage grid.

Contractor Petrofac has been working on the fabrication of two High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) transformer stations Alpha and Beta at the Drydocks World fabrication yard in Dubai. 

The Beta topside - also with a capacity of 700 MW - is expected to follow in the first quarter of next year. When the Hollandse Kust (Zuid) wind farm, developed by Vattenfall, is fully operational in 2023, it will generate an amount of renewable energy that is equivalent to the annual consumption of more than two million households. Hollandse Kust (Zuid) is the first subsidy-free wind farm area in the world.