As part of their combined bid in the latest Hollandse Kust West (HKW) auction, SSE Renewables and its partner Brookfield reached an agreement with Dutch energy users.
SSE Renewables and Brookfield have formed an exclusive cooperation with the VEMW Wind consortium, which includes Dutch energy customers from agriculture, metals, chemicals, and the brewing sector, as part of their application for Site 7, which focuses on energy system integration.
For the next 15 years, the participating enterprises will use a major portion of the electricity generated by the 700MW offshore wind farm, which will subsequently be utilised to power a variety of projects, including electrolytic hydrogen manufacturing and electric boilers.
The agreement is one of the largest in terms of the number of parties involved, especially for a contract involving a single energy source.
The contract will offer crucial renewable energy to Dutch industrial enterprises, some of whom do not have investment-grade credit ratings and would otherwise be unable to obtain low-carbon energy in this manner.
The VEMW consortium has the ability to deliver demand flexibility services as part of the agreement.
A combination of hydrogen electrolysers, boilers, and heat pumps can adjust demand to better match supply from the site, lowering system costs in the Netherlands.
The entire amount of flexible demand from VEMW member assets under development could cover a large portion of the generated output, smoothing out the supply and demand of power from Site 7.
SSE Renewables and Brookfield will also create a €20 million fund for the VEMW partnership to possibly co-invest in decarbonisation projects if certain conditions are met and the Site 7 bid is successful.
SSE Renewables’ director of development international markets, Dennis Breugelmans, said “SSE Renewables is proud to be partnering with VEMW and enabling such a diverse range of Dutch industrial customers to access clean, cheap power through this PPA which will enable their decarbonisation journeys, whilst also ensuring that offshore wind is consumed flexibly and in a way that maintains stability of the Dutch grid.”
