Deep Dig-It

Van Oord’s Deep Dig-It is a so-called ‘Tracked Remotely Operated Vehicle’ (TROV) that drives unmanned over the seabed and creates a deep trench for the cables by liquefying the seabed. At the same time, the trencher inserts the cables into the trench and seals them again into the seabed. This new trencher is one of the largest and most powerful of its kind and can bury cables more than 5 metres deep in very hard soil. The Deep Dig-It is controlled at Van Oord’s offshore installation vessel MPI Adventure, which is also equipped with a crane to launch and take out the Deep Dig-It.

Hollandse Kust (South) grid connection

The Hollandse Kust (zuid) offshore wind farm is located 22 kilometres off the coast of the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland. The sea cables connect the two offshore platforms with the Maasvlakte high-voltage substation and the Randstad 380 kV South ring.

The 1,400 MW grid connection will be completed in 2022 and will eventually provide electricity for 1.6 million households. The offshore wind farm contributes significantly to the Dutch government’s objective of having a total of 3.5 GW installed offshore wind energy capacity by 2023. With the commissioning of Borssele Alpha and Beta this year, the first 1.4 GW has been realised.