Wedoany.com Report-May 31, NRG, a contractor group comprising Denys, Alsema, and Van Vulpen, initiated drilling operations under the dunes at Maasvlakte, Netherlands, as part of TenneT’s project to connect offshore wind energy to the national grid. The operation involves six horizontal directional drillings, with three more planned after the summer. The process can be observed live from an information point at Noordzeeboulevard.

Preparations have been completed both inside the dike and on the beach. An electric drill is creating a 200-meter borehole toward the beach, where a plastic casing will be placed to house the electricity cable. NRG has prior experience with similar wind energy connections at Heemskerk/Wijk aan Zee and Velsen.

TenneT’s representative, Robert Wijnholds, stated: “This time it concerns drilling for the grid connections of the IJmuiden Ver Beta and Gamma wind energy areas.” Swedish contractor NKT will install seabed cables to link to an offshore transformer platform. The system uses a 525,000-volt cable setup with a negative pole, a positive pole, a metallic return, and a fiber optic cable. Wijnholds explained: “The metallic return ensures that the system can continue to use half of its capacity in the event of a cable failure. All systems at sea will soon be remotely controlled via the fibre optic cable.”

The drilling process involves three stages. Wijnholds noted: “First, they use the electric drill to make a so-called pilot drilling from the work area behind the dunes to the beach. The drilling team then pulls a reamer through the drilling to make the hole bigger. During the third and final step, the reamer is connected to a casing pipe with a diameter of almost half a metre and then pulled back.” This process will be repeated six times.

The sea cables, scheduled for installation next year, will be buried deep in the beach and connected underground to land-based cables currently being laid. This project supports the integration of offshore wind energy, enhancing the Netherlands’ renewable energy infrastructure.