The 27 MW MetroWind Van Stadens (MWVS) wind farm has officially started commercial operations, the developers confirmed on Monday.
The facility, which is located in the wind-rich Nelson Mandela Bay municipal area of the Eastern Cape has been supplying power into the regional grid since late November, but the ‘facility completion’ milestone was officially achieved on February 2.
The R550-million project has been under development since 2006 and was selected preferred bidder by the Department of Energy during the first bid window under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.
The wind farm is fully South African-owned and its shareholders include Old Mutual (34%), Spilled Water Renewable Energy (25%), Basil Read Energy (23%), AfriCoast Engineers (13%) and the Metrowind Community Trust (5%).
The MWVS incorporates nine 3 MW Sinovel wind turbines, which were manufactured in China.
Actual construction started in November 2012 and Basil Read Energy’s Ian Curry tells Engineering News Online that the project was delivered “bang on time”.
The turbines are currently being optimised and Sinovel has been appointed the operations and maintenance partner for the facility.