Tilt signs up Aldi for Dundonnell wind farm, as Snowtown dodges negative prices

Tilt described the 10-year power purchase agreement with Aldi – for around 6 per cent of the output of the 336MW Dundonnell wind farm – as its first corporate PPA – that is with a corporate end-user rather than a government entity or retailer.

Tilt had previously signed a “support agreement” with the Victoria state government as part of the Victoria Renewable Energy Auction scheme, as well as a long‐term PPA with Snowy Hydro. The deal with Aldi takes the percentage of output under contract to 93 per cent.

“This 10‐year PPA is the result of a competitive process and our success in that process clearly demonstrates the quality of the Dundonnell project and the capability of the Tilt Renewables team,” Tilt chief executive Deion Campbell said in a statement.

“We are excited to have established our first corporate PPA with a partner as iconic as Aldi. This PPA provides further revenue certainty from the project,” which began production earlier this month (March 11) and is expected to reach full production in the third quarter of 2020.

Aldi’s deal with Dundonnell take effect  from the beginning of 2021, and follows the recent announcement that it has signed up for a 10-year PPA to take 19.40 per cent of the output of Ratch Australia’s 225MW Collector wind farm in NSW, also from early next year.

Tilt, meanwhile, reported an eight per cent lift in production from its Australian wind farms – mostly the Snowtown 1 project in South Australia and the Salt Creek wind farm in Victoria, excluding the recently sold Snowtown 2 project – and a smaller rise in New Zealand.

Tilt said that curtailment at Snowtown due to the South Australian (SA) System Strength constraint – imposed as a result of the state grid being “islanded” for more than two weeks in February after the major transmission line from Victoria was torn down in a storm – was lower than in previous quarters, estimated at 1.3 GWh for Snowtown 1.