Wind Farm Takes its First Breath

Archived News, Posted on 12 May 2011

Wind farm takes first breath
11 May, 2011 03:23 PM

MERREDIN’s Collgar Wind Farm will send its first power into the grid this week. This means that for the first time, locals may boil a kettle or cook their morning toast with power generated at the wind farm.

Seventy-six out of 111 turbines have now been erected at the wind farm, of which 50 are ready to be put into action.

Up until now the turbines have been locked in a stationary position, but this week the first group of turbines will be set spinning, a process known as “bringing them online”.

To be brought online, each turbine requires a team of technicians to turn it on and check that it is working properly.

“The turbines will be brought online gradually at a rate of roughly three per week,” wind farm chief technical officer Mike Gilmore said.

“This will repeat until all 111 are online.

“This is the last major step that we have on our way to becoming a fully functioning wind farm.”

Last month the wind farm’s power substation was connected to the east-west transmission line by Western Power.

When the first power is generated this week it will flow into the South West Interconnected System which powers a large area, not just Merredin.

(Farmweekly.com.au)

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