Eiffage consortium wins the contract to build four electrical substations off the coast of Belgium for the world’s first artificial energy island

Vélizy-Villacoublay, 4 July 2024 

5:40 pm

Press release

Eiffage consortium wins the contract to build four electrical substations off the coast of Belgium for the world’s first artificial energy island

Eiffage, through its Belgian Eiffage Métal subsidiary Smulders, in a consortium with HSM Offshore Energy and Iv-Offshore & Energy recently secured the EPCIC^[1] contract from Elia Transmission Belgium, the Belgian national electricity transmission network operator, to build four alternating-current electrical substations on Princess Elisabeth Island, the future artificial energy island located off the Belgian coast.

The consortium will be responsible for the design, fabrication, installation and commissioning of the island’s high-voltage infrastructure, which includes four alternating-current substations installed directly on the structure of the island. Two of these will be 1,050-megawatt substations; the others two will have a capacity of 700 megawatts. A service module and a garage are also included in the contract.

Construction of the substations will begin in May 2025 and is expected to take until the first quarter of 2029. Smulders will manufacture part of the infrastructures in its Belgian factories and perform final assembly at its new site in Vlissingen in the Netherlands. Installation on the island will commence in 2027 with a view to commissioning in 2030.

Princess Elisabeth Island will be the world’s first energy island to combine direct (HVDC) and alternating (HVAC) current. Located approximately 45 kilometres from the coast, it is part of a

project to establish an offshore grid network, which will receive the electricity generated by offshore wind farms in the area and deliver it onshore. A true centralised energy hub, the island will also create interconnectors for energy exchange with other countries when their wind farms are not producing to their full capacity.

This new contract underlines the Group’s ability to create exceptional offshore wind infrastructure, with more than 30 electrical substations already completed for the European market. Major contracts won include the wind farm substation off Saint-Brieuc Bay in France, and two offshore electrical substations serving Scotland’s Moray West and Inch Cape offshore wind farms.

About Eiffage  Eiffage is one of Europe’s leading construction and concessions companies. The Group’s activities are organised around the following business lines: construction, real estate and urban development, civil engineering, metal, roads, energy and concessions. Thanks to the experience of more than 78,200 employees, Eiffage generated revenue of €21.8 billion in 2023, of which 31 percent was outside France. 

About Eiffage Métal

Eiffage Métal is the Eiffage group's brand dedicated to turnkey metallic construction. Its teams design and build construction shells and façades, and engineering structures. Eiffage Métal is an industry leader, particularly in the offshore wind sector, specialised in complex, multi-technical projects. With a strong European and international presence and nine production plants, Eiffage Métal employs more than 2,100 people.

Press contact 

Marguerite Richebé Tel: +33 6 22 15 99 97 marguerite.richebe@eiffage.com