General Electric: GE and HSM Offshore Energy sign MoU for AC offshore wind substation projects

To respond to the increasing demand for turnkey delivery of offshore high-voltage substations in the rapidly growing offshore wind market, GE’s Grid Solutions business, a global power industry systems provider, and EPCIC (turnkey) platform and modules builder HSM Offshore Energy announced today that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to partner on further AC projects in Europe and beyond. This MoU can help accelerate the energy transition by supporting reliable connections of offshore wind resources to the power grid.

“We are pleased to strengthen our collaboration with HSM Offshore Energy through this MoU. Together we offer complementary expertise to support AC offshore wind substations projects across the market. GE brings project engineering and management excellence to this partnership, as well as a complete portfolio of key electrical equipment and a global footprint,” said Philippe Piron, President & CEO of GE’s Grid Solutions business. “Over the past 15 years, Grid Solutions has won significant contracts to deliver high-voltage alternating current (AC) systems for 18 offshore substations projects, connecting over 5 GW of offshore wind farms in Europe – specifically UK, Germany, Belgium, and France.”

“We are pleased to continue collaborating with GE’s Grid Solutions business, to jointly win and deliver offshore wind substations projects. For more than 60 years, HSM Offshore Energy has successfully delivered integrated platform, module, and jacket projects for the upstream offshore energy sector. In the offshore wind market, we were pioneers with the delivery of the world’s first high-voltage substation off the coast of Denmark and contributed to the connection of 3.5 GW of offshore wind farms in Europe including UK, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands,” said Jaco Lemmerzaal, Managing Director at HSM Offshore Energy. “We have our own yard with large climate-controlled construction and assembly halls and deep-water quay sides with open North Sea access, and a high number of experienced and loyal permanent staff covering full turnkey capabilities.”

The MoU between GE’s Grid Solutions and HSM Offshore Energy focuses on supporting the development of offshore wind projects by providing an optimized and cost-effective turnkey value proposition which adequately covers complete engineering, procurement, and manufacturing, including the HV equipment, grid compliance studies, full testing and pre-commissioning, transport, installation at sea and then final hook up and commissioning. Moreover, developers can benefit from ongoing design standardization efforts undertaken by GE and HSM, who are aiming to achieve the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE), while taking away interface risks both for the construction and operational phases of the offshore substations.