Kalbarri End-of-Grid Wind Farm

Verve Energy has installed a wind farm, comprising two 850kW Enercon E48 wind turbines, at Kalbarri. The $5.2 million wind farm was officially opened on 27 July 2008.

The turbines will improve the quality of the electricity supply and increase the capacity of the local electrical network by about 15%. These improvements will be achieved through a combination of suitable wind turbine technology and special voltage control equipment.

Situated 25km south of Kalbarri, the wind farm is connected directly to the South West Interconnected System (SWIS).

Verve Energy modelling predicts that the wind farm will produce about 5 GWh of clean, green electricity a year, or roughly one-third of the Kalbarri community’s current demand. And it will offset about 5,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

Kalbarri is on the northern edge of the SWIS, connected to the system via a 136km long 33,000 volt distribution line which is operating near its capacity limit.

Connecting wind turbines to directly into the SWIS was a challenge for Verve Energy, a challenge overcome with the considerable expertise its engineers have gained from 30 years of developing wind energy technology.

A transformer near the base of each wind turbine allows high voltage connection to the distribution lines. A special piece of equipment called a STATCOM smoothes the voltage on the high voltage electricity system. The result is an improved quality of electricity supply to Kalbarri.

This type of installation – wind turbines installed together with a STATCOM – could be fitted at ‘end-of-grid’ locations anywhere in Australia, where quality of electricity supplies is an issue.

The Kalbarri Wind Project is supported by the Australian Government through the Renewable Remote Power Generation Program. The Program is implemented by the State’s Sustainable Energy Development Office in Western Australia.

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