SSE Renewables and its partner Brookfield have agreed a deal with Dutch energy users as part of their joint bid recently submitted in the latest Hollandse Kust West (HKW) auction.
As part of their bid for Site 7, which focuses on energy system integration, SSE Renewables and Brookfield, have agreed an exclusive partnership with the VEMW Wind consortium which represents Dutch energy users from across agriculture, metals, chemicals as well as the brewery sector.
The participating companies will consume a large part of the electricity produced by the 700MW offshore wind farm for a period of 15 years, which will then be used to power a range of projects, including electrolytic production of hydrogen and electric boilers.
The agreement is one of the largest ever signed in terms of the number of counterparties, particularly in a contract supplied from a single energy source.
The contract will provide critical renewable power to Dutch industrial companies, some of which do not have an investment grade credit rating and therefore could otherwise not access low carbon energy in this way.
As part of the partnership, the VEMW consortium also has potential to provide demand flexibility services.
This potential is provided by a combination of hydrogen electrolysers, boilers and heat pumps, which can shift demand to better match supply from the site, thus reducing system costs in the Netherlands.
The total amount of flexible demand from VEMW member assets in development could cover a significant part of the generated output helping to smooth out the supply and demand of electricity from Site 7.
SSE Renewables and Brookfield will also provide a €20m fund to potentially co-invest in decarbonisation projects for the VEMW consortium, subject to meeting certain criteria and the Site 7 bid being successful.
Dennis Breugelmans, director of development international markets at SSE Renewables, said: “SSE Renewables is proud to be partnering with VEMW and enabling such a diverse range of Dutch industrial customers to access clean, cheap power through this PPA which will enable their decarbonisation journeys, whilst also ensuring that offshore wind is consumed flexibly and in a way that maintains stability of the Dutch grid.”