The market dialogue with interested vendors have shown that the Energy Island project needs start tendering early in order to reserve production capacity and keep to the project timeline. Another direct consequence of the market dialogue is that 50Hertz and Energinet will split the tender into multiple contracts in order to enable vendors interested in bidding on the HVDC stations and cables the possibility to bid on contracts within their core business, while other parts of the project will be tendered separately.

HDVC equipment for the stations in Germany and Denmark will be tendered as one joint contract which has been sent to prequalified vendors today. 50Hertz and Energinet has designed the procurement of the HVDC-breakers – a future key technology for the energy island - as an option, which can either be built as part of the initial construction – or as a separate tender at a later phase. The reason for this is that some vendors are highly interested in supplying the breakers, while others prefer to focus on their core products.

”We cannot ignore the current market situation. HVDC circuit breakers will play an important part in the operation of our Energy Island but are not crucial in the initial phase. Therefore, we have decided that it is more important to ensure a competitive bidding process and to keep up the pace of the green transition in order to secure the supply of clean electricity to consumers in Germany and Denmark,” said Hanne Storm Edlefsen, Vice President for Energy Islands at Energinet.

50Hertz has already signed a contract for the procurement of HVDC cables for Bornholm Energy Island and several other projects. Energinet has started the tender of one contract for production of cables as well as offshore installation. Onshore installation and horizontal directional drillings (HDD) will be a separate contract, as well as surveying and removal of unexploded ordnance (UXO) which will also be tendered as a separate contract at a later time. Civil works and the buildings for the HDVC stations will be tendered for Denmark and Germany respectively, at a later time.

Construction on Energinets part of the project in Denmark can start once it has received an environmental permit and archaeological excavations have been completed in 2025. In Germany, installation and construction can start after permits are granted by the authorities.