The Paris office of LOC Renewables has been contracted by the Belgian transmission system operator, Elia, to provide marine warranty survey (MWS) services for the modular offshore grid (MOG) project, located 40 kilometres off the Belgian coast in the North Sea. The agreement will see LOC provide support during the construction and installation of the offshore switchyard (OSY) platform and the submarine cables that will serve it.
The new MOG project, with its central OSY platform, will connect four planned wind farms: Rentel, Northwester 2, Mermaid and SeaStar, enabling them to supply electricity directly to the Belgian national electricity grid. It is anticipated that the project could also provide an initial foundation for the future development of an extensive North Sea grid, with the potential to interconnect the electricity supplies of neighbouring countries.
Construction of the OSY offshore platform, a grounded, 4-leg substructure housing a 220kV Gas Insulated Switchgear, started in 2018. Initial work on installing the submarine cable connections will commence in 2019, including a 220kV AC cable linking the OSY and the Rentel wind farm, and two more identical cables linking the OSY to the Stevin substation on Zeebrugge beach. The company began carrying out MWS services in January 2018 and will continue in 2020.