New NSW wind farm sends first bursts of power to the grid

After 11 years in the development pipeline, the still-under construction Flyers Creek wind farm sent its first power to the grid on Wednesday.

The Iberdrola project generated very small amounts of power between 11am and midday, and on Thursday was switched on again at 11am as it works its way through the commissioning process.

This involves working through various “hold points” and the 145 MW Flyers Creek wind farm is currently limited to an output of just 3.8 MW.

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An Iberdrola spokesperson told RenewEconomy that it’s a small milestone for the wind farm, located near Orange in the state’s Central West.

“Of the 38 turbines that will comprise the wind farm, three are currently complete and capable of generating power, an additional 18 are mechanically installed with the blades now attached to the towers,” he said.

Over a decade in development

The project seemed cursed until Spanish giant Iberdrola picked it up last year through the purchase of Infigen Energy in 2021. Construction finally began in March 2022.

Flyers Creek has been in the pipeline since 2012, when it received development approval. But financial close was deferred and delayed until COVID-19 arrived and high costs killed the project off temporarily.

Infigen swore the project was still a goer, given its location close to a large electricity load and compelling wind resource, and Iberdrola clearly agreed when Flyers Creek appeared in its expanded portfolio.

Iberdrola hasn’t said how much it spent to bring the project to fruition, but an application in 2019 to modify the development approval showed Infigen had a $300 million budget to get it running.

GE is supplying the 3.8 MW turbines which have a rotor diameter of 137 metres.

Flyers Creek isn’t the only project capitalising on the prime Orange location.

Some 40km to the north is the proposed Kerrs Creek wind farm, was originally pitched by RES Australia as a proposed 650 MW operation with 80 turbines, but has been reduced to a planned 441 MW, 63-turbine project.