TenneT Begins Drilling Under Dunes for Laying Electricity Cables on Maasvlakte

In the coming years, grid operator TenneT will bring wind energy from the sea to land on the Maasvlakte. To enable the landing of these electricity cables, contractor NRG started six drillings under the dunes May 26. Three more will follow after the summer.

In recent days, NRG has made the necessary preparations both inside the dike and on the beach. The electric drill is making a horizontally directional drilling over a distance of approximately 200 meters towards the beach. An empty plastic casing will be placed in that borehole, into which the electricity cable will later be pulled.

In order to connect such an unmanned platform at sea to the high-voltage grid on land, a 525,000 volt cable system is buried in the seabed.

NRG carries out the horizontal (via GPS) directional drilling in three steps. “First, they use the electric drill to make a so-called pilot drilling from the work area behind the dunes to the beach," said Robert Wijnholds, on behalf of TenneT. "The drilling team then pulls a reamer through the drilling to make the hole bigger. During the third and final