VBMS, NKT win Borssele cable job

A consortium of VBMS and Denmark's NKT Cables has been awarded a contract for the cables that will connect the Borssele offshore wind farms 1 and 2, totalling 700 MW, to the Dutch grid.

Under the contract, awarded by transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT Holding BV, VBMS, which is a subsidiary of Netherlands-based Royal Boskalis Westminster NV (AMS:BOKA), and NKT Cables, will supply and install two export cables of 61 km (37.9 miles) that will come ashore near the existing high-voltage substation at Borssele, the Netherlands.

In addition to the Borssele 1 and 2 connection, referred to as Borssele Alpha, TenneT said the VBMS-NKT consortium is also the intended partner for its next offshore grid connection project, Borssele Beta that will connect the Borssele offshore wind farms 3 and 4. Overall, the TSO is to develop a total of 3.5 GW of offshore links in the Netherlands, each of 700 MW by 2023. The Borssele Alpha connection is due to be completed in 2019. TenneT said the tenders for the subsea cables and offshore transformer stations for the Holland Coast South project will be announced at the end of 2016.

VBMS said its share of the contract was worth about EUR 70 million (USD 77m). NKT, meanwhile, said that for it the contract value in market prices will be about EUR 77 million. The cables will be manufactured in Cologne, Germany, and will delivered for installation in late 2018.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.105)

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