Production has been halted from the first operating stage of what will be Australia’s biggest wind and solar hybrid project after repeated “flickers” on the grid were experienced in South Australia on Thursday morning.
The “flickering” and “dimming” was caused by voltage fluctuations on the local grid, and the Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park, which will eventually combine 210MW of wind capacity and 107MW of solar capacity, was identified as the cause.
Production has been halted at Parep, which is owned by the local offshoot of Spanish renewables giant Iberdrola, which had been working its way through the various stages of commissioning of the wind component of the facility.
“SA power users would have noticed their lights flickering between 1.30-5.30am today,” transmission company ElectraNet tweeted on Thursday. “The cause was a network voltage issue from third-party plant connected to the network and once this was identified, we were able to disconnect it.”
In a later statement, ElectraNet said the issue was found to be coming from the new wind farm connection at Parep, which is currently in its commissioning phase.
“Once the issue was identified by ElectraNet and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), the generator was disconnected from the network, preventing any further disturbance to customers,” it said.
“Before a new generator like a wind farm or solar farm connects to the National Electricity Market there is a rigorous connection process to ensure all required technical standards are met and that there will be no adverse impacts on the network or customers.
“This includes a comprehensive commissioning process to identify and resolve any technical issues, as new generation capacity is gradually released into grid, limiting potential adverse impacts.
“The Australian Energy Market Operator and ElectraNet, will be working with the generator to fully investigate the incident. The generator will remain off-line until this issue is resolved.”
A spokesman for Iberdrola said the company “will be working closely with the market operator and network service provider to promptly identify and resolve the causes of yesterday’s voltage instability event in South Australia.
“At full operations Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park will contribute 900GWh per year of low cost green energy to the South Australian grid, equivalent to powering around 180,000 homes.”
It had been permitted to operate up to a capacity of around 140MW before production was halted.
