The cargo vessel ‘Julietta D’ that went out of control suddenly hit a substation foundation at a construction site for one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world, located in the Dutch North Sea. Julietta D had been left rudderless in heavy seas following a collision with a tanker on Monday, letting it drift at the site of Hollandse Kust South.
The network operator mentioned that the cargo ship rammed into a foundation that supports one of two giant substation platforms currently being installed by TenneT for the grid connection of the project. TenneT said that there was no one working at the site of the Beta platform at that time. On the other hand, the other Alpha platform, where approximately 100 individuals were at work, remained unaffected.
The Dutch coastguard had reported on Tuesday that the condition was manageable with the presence of salvage vessels. The Malteseflagged vessel Julietta D’s crew members were also evacuated safely with the help of helicopters.
Boskalis, a reputed Marine contractor, mentioned that it expects to have Julietta D towed to port in Rotterdam by afternoon on 1 February. Vattenfall, a Swedish utility, is building the wind farm Hollandse Kust Zuid in Dutch waters but with zero government subsidies, having achieved secured permits to develop the entire project in 2019.

BASF, chemicals major, and Allianz Capital Partners, the institutional investors, have since bought into this wind farm. A helicopter had to rescue 18 members of Julietta D’s crew on 31 January after it was untethered and left floating into the wind farm.