A consortium of NKT and Boskalis has secured a €550m-plus deal with German transmission system operator 50Hertz to supply and install the grid wire for the Ostwind 2 offshore wind connection in the Baltic Sea.
The Danish cable manufacturer will deliver 270km of offshore and 8km of onshore wires for the grid hub, which will connect Parkwind’s 248MW Arcadis Ost 1 and Iberdrola’s 476MW Baltic Eagle project to shore.
The deal, worth €300m, marks the company’s largest-ever AC high-voltage export cable order, it said.
Manufacturing will take place in Karlskrona, Sweden, and in Cologne, Germany, starting in 2020.
Dutch marine contractor Boskalis will meanwhile install the wires under its scope, which is worth in excess of €250m and also is its largest cable installation contract to date.
The job includes design and installation of 270km of lines. Work is expected to start in 2019.
Boskalis will deliver the contract with in-house vessels and services, which will include supporting UXO survey, geotechnical and geophysical surveys, seabed preparation works, pre-lay run, transport and installation of the 220kV export cables and seabed reinstatement.
NKT interim chief executive Roland Andersen said: “This award is a recognition from 50Hertz, our customer for years, of our technology and know-how of complex high-voltage offshore projects.”
He added: “For NKT this is the first order where our customer benefits from power cables being manufactured at both our high-voltage plants. This enables more efficient production planning and more flexible deliveries for our customer.”
Boskalis chief executive Peter Berdowski said: “The fact that we are able to combine our dredging services, recently acquired survey capabilities together with our cable installation competencies demonstrates Boskalis’ ability to offer a unique breadth of services.
“We look forward to further expanding this position for our clients as the leading subsea cable installation contractor.”
Ostwind 2 is due to be commissioned by end-2022.