TenneT has reached a new stage in preparations to connect three offshore wind farms at Maasvlakte in the Netherlands. Steel casing pipes have now been installed at all three beach work sites, allowing horizontal directional drilling to begin beneath the beach and seabed, weather permitting.
The casings mark the final phase of onshore preparation and form the entry points for underground drilling from the beach towards the sea. Each crossing will be carried out in three stages, starting with a directional pilot bore, followed by widening of the borehole and installation of protective conduit pipes, and ending with pulling the conduits into place from offshore.
Once installed, the conduit pipes will be used to pull export cables from the sea to shore. Cable installation is planned to follow from 2027, when contractor NKT will complete the cable pull-in works through the installed ducts.
The infrastructure is being developed to connect the IJmuiden Ver Beta, IJmuiden Ver Gamma and Nederwiek 2 offshore wind farms, which together are expected to provide around 6 GW of capacity. First power is planned to reach the Dutch high-voltage grid via Maasvlakte from 2029.
