PRESS RELEASE
With the last of 35 foundations poured at the end of January at ACCIONA’s Mortlake South Wind Farm, the project reach another milestone on Friday with the unveiling of the main power transformer.
Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio was joined by ACCIONA Energy Managing Director, Brett Wickham, and Wilson Transformer Managing Director, Ed Wilson to view the transformer at Wilson’s local manufacturing facility in Glen Waverley.
Wilson Transformers was awarded the $2 million contract to deliver the transformer for the Mortlake South Wind Farm, which was one of six successful projects announced in September 2018 as part of the Victorian Government’s Renewable Energy Target (VRET) reverse auction.
The 200-tonne transformer will be transported under Vic Roads supervision to the project site, where it will then be installed in the sub-station and play a critical role to facilitate the export of electricity from the wind turbines to the electricity grid.
“We are extremely proud of this project”, said Mr Wickham, “as it has provided an opportunity for people to work in construction locally. On this project, 92% – 93% of the workforce during civil construction have been local, coming from areas such as Purrumbete, Cobden and Warrnambool. The local content targets for the project have also supported local jobs in the broader Victorian manufacturing industry.”
With the transformer due to arrive onsite by the middle of February, the focus over the coming months will be to continue the electrical works, particularly the construction of the substation and installation of the 220kv underground transmission line.
The project is on target for construction completion at the end of this year, and once operational it will generate enough clean energy to power 115,000 houses. The project will also see ACCIONA’s owned capacity in Australia increase to 592MW, with the company actively pursuing additional projects both locally, and interstate.
