Victoria solar farm offline for nearly a year, to resume operations soon after fixing component failures

One of the winners of Victoria’s first renewable energy auctions, the 34 MW Cohuna solar farm, has been offline for nearly a year, but its owners hope to bring it back into full operation soon

The Cohuna solar farm – located near the town of the same name in northern Victoria – has not produced any power since early April last year, and its absence from the grid was recently noticed by energy data firm Watt Clarity.

The facility, one of five project winners of Victoria’s first renewable energy auction in 2018, is owned by Potentia Energy – the renamed Enel Green Power joint venture with Japan’s Inpex – but has had a troubled history, both due to its location and project cost over-runs with its original EPC contractor Tempo Services.

A spokesperson for Potentia says the company has been working on an “extensive scope of remediation and upgrades” throughout 2024.

“This work is aimed at restoring the site to full capacity, with operations expected to resume in the first quarter of this year,” the spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Renew Economy.

“The onsite work is required due to some site-wide component failure. As part of the electrical works, some components such as DC cables and cable connections are being replaced, intending to result in improved quality, reliability, and an increase to the expected lifespan of the asset.” 

The Cohuna project was the smallest of six projects that won 15-year contracts with the Victoria government in its first renewable energy auction in 2018, but it found itself caught on a weak part of the grid – dubbed the Rhombus of Regret” – that limited output for a number of facilities until the issue was resolved.

It also had a period offline in early 2022 (see graph above).

Potentia Energy also operates the 220 MW Bungala solar projects in South Australia – the biggest in the state – and the 75 MW Flat Rock wind farm in Western Australia.

It is currently commissioning the 93 MW Girgarre solar farm in Victoria and construction is underway on Quorn Park hybrid project – comprising 98 MW solar and a 20 MW/40 MWh battery – in NSW. The company has secured rights for a development pipeline of over 7 GW of wind, solar, battery and hybrid projects in Australia.