Project ONE’s ‘Grid Intake Substation’ is the site hub for receiving electrical power supply from Elia and the national electrical grid. Construction is in full swing and the substation will play a crucial role in the start-up and operations of Project ONE.
Two separate 380,000 Volt power supplies arrive at Project ONE from Elia’s high-voltage substation near Lillo. The cables are underground along Scheldelaan, each coming from a different part of the electricity network to provide redundancy in power supply.
All electricity entering Project ONE’s Grid Intake Substation is 100% green electricity, coming from the wind farms off the Belgian coast. INEOS has concluded three power purchase agreements for this purpose: with Eneco (SeaMade wind farm), RWE (Northwester2 wind farm) and Engie (Norther wind farm).
The Grid Intake Substation distributes power to Project ONE’s electrical network including eight substations, which convert the incoming 380,000 Volts to the end user voltages for pumps, compressors, fans, lighting etc, via transformers.
Project ONE’s electrical network also contains two steam turbine generators which generate additional electrical power. The combination of electrical power supplies from Elia and the steam turbine generators ensures Project ONE will operate reliably, without interruption.
Project ONE also makes the most efficient use of energy thanks to far-reaching heat integration. For instance, waste heat is used to heat up process streams where required, and maximum use is made of heat from the furnaces in the process to heat up other parts or, conversely, cooler parts of the processes e.g use the coolness of the ethane feedstock, are used to to cool down other parts of the processes. This leads to an extremely efficient plant. Furthermore, from the start 60% of the ethane cracker’s energy requirement will be met by hydrogen generated during cracking processes.
As for many other projects on the Project ONE site, Flemish companies are involved in the construction of the Grid Intake Substation. The construction is in the hands of construction company Vanhout and the lifting works will be done by Sarens, which, by the way, takes care of all lifting works on the Project ONE site. The technical design of the substation building is carried out by Equans. Close coordination with the Elia technical authorities ensures that Project ONE utilises the best technology available to distribute and utilize the electrical energy responsibly and safely.
For the assembly of the GIS station, Sarens has mobilised a 400-ton crawler crane to install the precast concrete elements. This operation is supported by a comprehensive engineering study that meticulously considers all site constraints. The study ensures that our work is executed in the safest and most efficient manner possible, in the challenging conditions of this complex project. Geel-based contractor Vanhout and Equans are building the GRID Intake Station (GIS) and the Central Control Building (CCB) for Project ONE. Vanhout is responsible for the execution of the structural works and Equans is in charge of the techniques in the buildings such as electricity, HVAC, plumbing and sprinklers.
Some figures at a glance
- Incoming electricity: The substation receives electricity from the high-voltage 380 KV grid via 2 separate cables.
- The cables powering the Grid Intake Substation are real clappers of 1,600 mm2 (‘1,600 square’) and a diameter of 25 cm.
- There is a total of 1,200 km of power cable at the Project ONE site.
