- Windlab has announced the Kennedy Energy Park Project has been connected to the electricity grid and energised
- Kennedy Energy Park is a world’s first utility-scale hybrid wind, solar and storage project
- First export of electricity from the Kennedy Energy Park is expected in mid-August – initial 5MW limit
- A Formal commercial operation is expected in Q419
Renewable energy company, Windlab has just announced the Kennedy Energy Park Project in North Queensland has been connected to the electricity grid and energised.
Kennedy Energy Park is a world’s first utility-scale hybrid wind, solar and storage project. It is located in Flinders Shire, approximately 290 kilometres south-west of Townsville.
This project was jointly developed and owned by Windlab and Eurus Energy.
“We are excited to reach this important milestone in the project,” Windlab Executive Chairman and CEO Roger Price said.
The road to establishment and being energised has been long for the company. Approval for development was granted in 2016 with construction beginning in late 2017. In December 2018, construction at Kennedy Energy Park was complete. However, the first energisation was overly delayed due to issues with registration and generator performance standards.
Being connected to the electricity grid is a huge milestone for the companies as they’ve reported many renewable generators in Australia have found a grid connection to be challenging for the past 18 months.
“Being the first project to implement both a statcom and synchronous condenser in Ergon’s network has meant Kennedy is no exception. However, the persistence and technical capability of the WND team has paid off,” Roger said.
First export of electricity from Kennedy Energy Park is expected in mid-August. Beforehand, there’s a “hold point zero” period to allow the network operator to conduct background power quality testing.
As the project progressively exports electricity to the network, it will commence commissioning and testing.
Initially, however, there will be a 5MW export limit until the Australian Energy Market Operator registers the project as a generator in September.
“We look forward to completing the registration and commissioning work over coming months as the project is placed into full service,” he said.
Formal commercial operation is expected in Q419.