Dundonnell Wind Farm

The 336MW Dundonnell wind farm is being developed in Dundonnell, approximately 70km north-east of Warrnambool, Victoria, West Australia.

The $560m project is being developed by Tilt Renewables (formerly Dundonnell Wind Farm Pty Ltd). Final investment decision on the project was taken in October 2018, while financial closure was achieved in November 2018.

The Dundonnell wind farm is the biggest among the six successful bids approved under the Victorian Renewable Energy Auction Scheme (VREAS), which aims to support the Victorian Renewable Energy Targets (VRET) of achieving 25% of the state’s electricity generation from renewable sources by 2020 and 40% by 2025.

Tilt Renewables has contracted 87% of the power generated from the wind farm to the Victorian State Government and Snowy Hydro under the VREAS and the Renewable Energy Procurement Program, respectively.

Construction on the project is expected to start in early-2019 and operations are due to commence in mid-2020. The project is expected to supply electricity to approximately 245,000 homes and displace approximately 1.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year.

Dundonnell wind farm location

The wind farm site lies in the south-western part of Victoria, approximately 23km north-east of Mortlake. The site covers an area of 4,200ha, of which the turbines and associated infrastructure are expected to occupy 220ha.

Dundonnell wind farm make-up

The Dundonnell wind farm will be installed with 80 V152-4.2MW Vestas turbines, which is the highest producing onshore low wind production turbine. The blades of the turbines are 73.7m-long, while the rotor diameter is 150m and the swept area is 17,671m².

The nacelle length of the turbines is 12.8m and the nacelle width is 4.2m. The hub has a height of 3.8m, width of 3.8m, and length of 5.5m. The rated power of each turbine is 4,000kW, cut-in wind speed is 3m/s and cut-out wind speed is 22.5m/s.

Each turbine is equipped with gearboxes – two of planetary stages and one of helical stage.

Infrastructure details

The wind farm will include a substation building, which will house the infrastructure needed to collect power from the turbines and transfer the same to the national grid. It will include two dual-rated transformers, switch gear, and associated equipment.

Permanent ancillary infrastructure at the wind farm will include up to four anemometers of approximately 110m height, an on-site maintenance and operations building, and 75km of access tracks.

Power transmission

A 38km-long, 220kV transmission line will be built to connect the on-site substation to an off-site substation. A 1km-long, 500kV power line will transfer the power generated from the off-site substation to the Mortlake gas terminal station, which is part of the Heywood-Moorabool 500kV electrical transmission network.

The off-site substation building will be built east of the Mortlake gas terminal station and will measure 200mx280m. It will contain infrastructure similar to that of the on-site substation.

Contractors involved

Vestas was awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract by Tilt Renewables for the supply, installation and commissioning of 80 wind turbines and electrical balance of plant equipment for the wind farm in November 2018. Vestas will also deliver maintenance services for a 15-year period, under the contract.

Zenviron was contracted by Vestas in November 2018 to deliver balance of plant, and civil and electrical works for the wind farm.

AusNet Services was contracted to construct a new 38km transmission line, a new substation, and a 500kV line connecting the wind farm to the Mortlake Terminal Station under build-own-operate (BOO) model.

Downer EDI was contracted to construct the transmission line.

Aviation Projects, an aviation consultancy based in Australia, carried out studies on the aviation aspects of the project.