AGL Negotiates with Shortlisted Tenderers for Silverton Windfarm

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--The Silverton Windfarm is a 1,000-megawatt (MW) project developed by AGL Energy Limited (New South Wales, Australia), which recently completed the construction on the 420-MW Macarthur Windfarm in Victoria. Silverton was proposed and initially owned by Epuron Pty Limited (New South Wales, Australia). It was bought by AGL in 2010.

The Silverton Windfarm, at completion, will consist of up to 580 wind turbines, each with a nominal capacity of between 1 and 2 MW. AGL will build the windfarm in two phases. The first phase will involve the installation of approximately 100 turbines and will operate at a capacity of up to 300 MW. The second phase will have up to 400 turbines and will generate of 500 to 700 MW of electricity, based on the turbine selection.

The windfarm will be built in the town of Silverton, New South Wales. Upon completion, Silverton will be one of the largest onshore wind projects in the world. It is expected to generate approximately 4.5% of New South Wales' total power consumption.

Each turbine will be connected to the substation at Broken Hill, via a network of proposed transmission lines. As part of the project, AGL will construct a 24-kilometre (km), 220-kilovolt (kV) transmission line and substation to upgrade the voltage to 66-220kV for connection to the transmission switchyard at Broken Hill. The proposal includes a number of upgrades to the existing substation. AGL intends to build another transmission line as long as 300 km as part of the Phase II windfarm construction, which involves a large cost for the company.

The initial construction start date was set for the first half of 2010. However, due to several issues, the construction of the windfarm has been pushed back to 2014. In October 2012, AGL released tenders for the project and received tender returns from various companies, including Vestas Australia (Melbourne, Australia), GE Australia (New South Wales, Australia), Goldwind Australia Pty Limited (Sydney, Australia), Acciona Energy Oceania Pty Limited (Victoria, Australia) and Alstom Australia Limited (Sydney, Australia).

AGL will finalize the EPC contractors and seek the final funding approval from board by end of the year. Subject to the board approval, AGL will begin the construction on site by end of first quarter 2014. The overall construction period is estimated to take 24 to 27 months.

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