Belgian meshed grid to the rescue as offshore wind export cable gets damaged

The export cable of the Rentel offshore wind farm is reported to have been damaged. However, the offshore wind farm keeps feeding electricity into the Belgian grid as the offshore power hub, Modular Offshore Grid (MOG), has taken over.

Elia, the operator of Belgium’s MOG, says that the cable from the Rentel platform to the mainland was damaged after an incident and that the cause of the cable incident is still being investigated.

In the meantime, an alternative transmission route via the offshore power hub is now being used.

According to Elia, despite the export cable damage, the 309 MW wind farm can continue to generate power since it is integrated into the meshed high-voltage grid, unlike Belgium’s first wind farms.

Namely, Rentel has two export cables: one running from its offshore substation to the coast, which is currently interrupted, and one running to Elia’s offshore power hub.

The offshore wind farm went into full operation in January 2019. In September 2019, Elia inaugurated its Modular Offshore Grid (MOG).

Four wind farms are connected to the MOG: Rentel, Northwester 2, and Mermaid and Seastar (the SeaMade project).

To avoid overloading the MOG’s cables, the generation capacity of the four offshore wind farms is temporarily limited during periods when there are high winds, Elia says.