Jan De Nul will take care of the transport, installation, burial and protection of the offshore cables. For this, it will use a variety of its specialised vessels and assets including the Fleeming Jenkin, the company’s recently ordered XL cable-laying vessel. LS Cable & System will design, manufacture, terminate and test all cables with Denys being responsible for civil and cable pulling scope related to the onshore cable routes. Together, the three companies provide TenneT with the much-needed experience and innovative techniques in support of its ambitious 2GW Program. In total, more than 1,000 km of HVDC will be designed, manufactured, transported, installed, protected, and tested for these two projects.

Wouter Vermeersch, Manager Offshore Cables at Jan De Nul Group: “We are delighted to sign these first two projects under the partnership frame agreement we signed earlier this year with TenneT. This marks an important milestone in support of TenneT’s 2GWProgram and the construction of the energy transition. We look forward to providing delivery excellence of these projects within the challenging North Sea environment together with TenneT and our partners.”

The projects are part of TenneT’s sustainable 2GW Program.

The cable systems of the two grid connections BalWin4 and LanWin1 coming from the offshore converter stations will cross the Wadden Sea and be connected to the extra-high voltage grid in Unterweser. The grid connections will enable renewable electricity from offshore wind farms with a transmission capacity of altogether 4 GW to be fed into the German grid.

BalWin4 and LanWin1 are part of the 2GW Program. With its transnational approach and a new standard for offshore grid connection systems, the 2GW Program accelerates European offshore grid expansion and secures energy supply for Europe. Together, the total of 14 offshore grid connections in the 2GW program will supply up to 35 million households with green wind energy.

XL cable-laying vessel Fleeming Jenkin will take care of transport and offshore installation.

XL cable-laying vessel Fleeming Jenkin, an Ultra Low Emission vessel (ULEv) with unrivalled carrying capacity of up to 28,000 tonnes, will transport and install the 525kV HVDC offshore cables. The two power core cables together with the metallic return cable as well as a fibre optic cable will be installed simultaneously using the three (3) carousels and fibre optic tank onboard the Fleeming Jenkin.

Apart from the ULEv technology, the ship is equipped with hybrid engines that can run on both biofuel and green methanol. This significantly reduces CO2 emissions. The 2.5 MWh battery and drive technology optimises energy use on board. Fleeming Jenkin will meet the strictest standards on emissions, such as the European Stage V and EURO VI emission standards.