Energy and marine consultancy ABL has been awarded a contract to provide marine warranty survey (MWS) services for the offshore transportation and installation operations relating to a Belgian energy island.
Belgium’s grid operator Elia Group awarded the MWS services contract for the Modular Offshore Grid 2 (MOG2) energy island project in the North Sea.
The MOG2 project will comprise offshore grid infrastructure to connect new offshore wind farms in the 3.5GW Princess Elizabeth zone, to the Belgian national grid via an energy hub located on an artificial island.
By creating a new connection point for hybrid interconnectors, the island will help to optimise the cost of renewable energy production in the North Sea.
“The MOG2 project is a great project for Belgium and will be key in improving distribution and efficiency in power consumption from the North Sea’s increasing renewable energy sources,” said Hugues Delanoue, Managing Director of ABL France.
ABL’s scope of work includes the review of all procedural documentation, vessel inspections to assess the suitability of the proposed fleet for transportation and installation (T&I) operations, and on-site attendance to assure operational compliance with the approved procedures.
It will cover the T&I for the energy island (a concrete caisson foundation and port), HVAC and HVDC modules and export cables.
“We’re really pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with ABL acting as Marine Warranty Surveyor in supporting the development of the Princess Elisabeth Island project.
“The ABL team’s independence and significant experience across subsea cables and renewable energy infrastructure T&I will help us to drive safety, efficiency and optimisation throughout our project” added Pierre-Yves Guillermin, Elia Package Manager for Princess Elisabeth Island.
Belgium is one of the four EU countries that recently announced the target of increasing the joint offshore wind capacity to 120GW by 2030, and to 300GW by 2050.
When built to full capacity, Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth wind farm zone will raise the country’s installed offshore wind capacity from the current 2.26GW to 5.8GW by 2030.