Jan de Nul to connect world's first artificial energy island to Belgian grid
Contractor wins contract together with LS Cable to link future 3.5GW Princess Elisabeth offshore wind zone to mainland
Contractor Jan de Nul in a consortium with LS Cable & System has won a contract to connect the future Princess Elisabeth Island – the world’s first artificial energy island – to the Belgian high-voltage power grid.
The energy island some 45km off the Belgian coast is currently being built by a Jan de Nul joint venture on concrete caissons filled with sand and will house almost exclusively transmission infrastructure.
The contract for Jan de Nul and LS Cable includes all works for three 220 kV high-voltage cables with a combined length of 165 km. Installation is scheduled to take place in 2028.
Belgian transmission system operator Elia also awarded the contract to design and build high-voltage AC substations for the energy island to a Dutch-Belgian consortium of HSM Offshore Energy, Smulders and Iv.
The EPCIC contract (Engineering, Procurement, Construction & Installation and Commissioning) includes the design and construction of four high-voltage AC substations, of which two have a capacity of 1.05GW and two of 700MW, as well as a facility module and a garage.