TenneT has completed the directional drilling under the beach and part of the seabed at Maasvlakte. Nine plastic protective conduits have now been laid in the boreholes, forming a protected passage for the electricity cables of the offshore wind farms. In the coming period, TenneT will connect the protective conduits for the IJmuiden Ver Gamma and Nederwiek 2 wind farms to the conduits previously laid from land under the dunes.
The cable connections will soon bring the sustainable electricity from the three wind farms from the North Sea to the national high-voltage grid. Because the water off the coast of Maasvlakte is too shallow for a cable-laying vessel, the ship cannot get close enough to the beach. Therefore, protective conduits have been laid under the beach and part of the seabed. These form part of the protected passage through which the high-voltage cables can be safely pulled from the sea to land.
Now that the drilling has been completed, the next phase is connecting the conduit pipes from the sea to the conduit pipes previously laid from land beneath the dunes. To do this, TenneT is creating two temporary construction pits on the beach using sheet piling, which are being excavated to a depth of approximately 7 to 8 meters below the beach. The construction pit for the connection for the IJmuiden Ver Beta wind farm will follow next year.
At the bottom of the construction pits, TenneT connects the conduit pipes pulled in from the sea to the pipes already laid beneath the dunes via a special coupling structure. This creates a single continuous protected route from the sea to behind the dunes. Starting in the spring of 2027, the electricity cables will therefore be pulled from the sea through the conduit pipes to land. Beach restored step by step
After making the connections, TenneT refills the construction pits with sand. Subsequently, the sheet piles are removed from the beach, allowing the beach to be restored to its original state. In this way, the temporary work area gradually shrinks, and the beach becomes available for recreation step by step.
In early 2027, a significant part of the work will move to the sea. A cable-laying vessel will arrive off the coast of the Maasvlakte to install the electricity cables. The cables will be pulled from the ship to land via protective tubes. They will then be laid further out at sea and buried beneath the seabed, up to TenneT's converter platforms at the offshore wind farms.
The connections at the Maasvlakte are intended for the IJmuiden Ver Beta, IJmuiden Ver Gamma, and Nederwiek 2 wind farms. Each wind farm will receive a connection with a capacity of 2 gigawatts. Together, this amounts to 6 gigawatts of sustainable electricity. This corresponds to the capacity of six large gas-fired power plants.
The first sustainable electricity from the IJmuiden Ver Beta wind farm is expected to come ashore via the Maasvlakte in 2029.
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