Cattle Hill Wind Farm, Tasmania
Clients: Wild Cattle Hill Pty Ltd (PowerChina Resources/Goldwind); TasNetworks and Zinfra
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Date: July 2018 – April 2021
Providing owner’s engineer and grid connection services during construction of a 148 MW wind farm
Background
As Australia transitions away from fossil fuels towards a cleaner energy future, more renewable energy will be required in the National Electricity Market. Tasmania has excellent wind resources and is well placed to support the energy transition with the development of new wind farms, supported by world-class hydropower resources.
Located on the eastern shore of Lake Echo in Tasmania’s Central Plateau, the Cattle Hill Wind Farm consists of 48 turbines, producing up to 148 MW of clean, renewable electricity, enough to power approximately 63,500 Tasmanian homes each year.
Solution
Entura was appointed as owner’s engineer by the joint client venture involving Goldwind and PowerChina, to support the successful construction and delivery of the project. The work included a comprehensive review of the construction documentation and designs, regular site inspections, certification of the contractor’s milestone events, and providing technical support to the owners on a wide range of issues during the construction process.
Entura provided a multi-disciplinary owner’s engineer team to work closely alongside the owner and the contractors, to support the successful construction and delivery of the project.
In separate roles, Entura was also engaged by TasNetworks to develop the technical specification for the connection of the wind farm into TasNetwork’s network at Waddamana.
TasNetworks engaged construction company Zinfra as the principal contractor, with Entura to provide the design and testing/commissioning, and to establish successful grid connection through the implementation of a new transmission line and the augmentation of Waddamana substation.
Services provided
- owner's engineer
- grid connection
- site inspection
- commissioning
Outcome
Construction of the project commenced in early 2018 and the wind farm became fully operational in 2020.
Entura's involvement as owner's engineer helped to bring Cattle Hill Wind Farm into fruition as a successful project. Our early involvement with the planning for the wind farm site coupled with our understanding and experience in Tasmania provided us with good oversight of the whole project. We were also able to identify and highlight potential issues before they eventuated, avoiding problems for the owner.
