THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - FEBRUARY 2017 explained Riedweg. He added: “We had to be extremely coordinated with the utility so they could inform customers of the coming supply cuts and minimise the duration of the cuts. There was significant pressure for commissioning the substation because any fault in the substation could potentially trigger a fault in the line. “We had to have 24/7 monitoring and supervision on site so we could react quickly when there were technical issues.” Following connection of the last turbine to the grid on December 15, 2016, Pampa is now going a through a period of operational and grid compliance tests. If erection itself was straight forward, commissioning was trickier. According to Riedweg, the main difficulty was in commissioning due to difficulties in securing a grid connection. With a medium-voltage line already running to the centre of the wind farm, the good news was there was no line to build. However, as this was the only line to the north of the country, shutting it down would result in 100 000 people losing supply in two cities. “When we erected the first turbine we had no grid connection, which caused some hiccups. It meant we had to do a lot of pre-commissioning to make sure that when the grid was switched on, we could commission as many turbines as quickly as possible,” Riedweg explained: “In Uruguay there can be some time between commissioning and commercial operation because of the acceptance criteria. But while you are doing commissioning, you still receive 80 per cent of the tariff for the energy produced. “Since December we have been providing an availability guarantee to the client because we have a 10-year maintenance contract on this project” He pointed out that maintenance will be performed by Nordex and not sub-contracted out, as is sometimes the case with its competitors. “We do as much as we can internally with our own technicians. On a wind farm of that size, we currently have six full-time technicians located on site and plan to recruit two more this year. We also have a team in Montevideo providing some back office support and technical emergency support to the site. It’s a decent sized organisation.” The resources that Nordex is putting into the Pampa project reflect its importance to the company. Not only is it currently the biggest wind farm in Uruguay, it is expected to remain the biggest for the foreseeable future. As well as being a landmark project for the country, it also sets a new milestone for Nordex. “It is the biggest project that Nordex has built so far,” noted Riedweg. In terms of geographic importance, it provides a platform for Nordex to further strengthen its position in the region. Outside of Brazil, which Nordex considers separately from its Latin America efforts due to its size and separate operation the company has there, Nordex is looking to build on its success in Uruguay. Riedweg commented: “Uruguay was the first market for Nordex in South America and we have a nice base there. Out of the 1.5 GW that will have been installed by the end of this year, we will have 309 MW – roughly 20 per cent.” He added that Pampa is already being used as the reference for securing other business. “We have been bringing other clients to the site to show them how we operate and what we do,” said Riedweg. It all ties in with Nordex’s joint venture with Spain’s Acciona Wind Power – a venture that is already bearing fruit. Two deals were recently closed in Argentina – La Castellana (97 MW) and Achiras (47 MW). “To my knowledge, we are the first to announce projects in Argentina. We have been able to enter the market very quickly because of the experience we gained in Uruguay combined with a very good product offering for the markets in Latin America,” said Riedweg. Argentina is one of two big markets in the region that Nordex will be targeting going forward. “The market is opening up following the election last year,” noted Riedweg. Mexico, where Acciona has already been particularly successful, is the other main focus. He said Nordex would also be building some projects in Peru and Chile would be next. He concluded: “Although Chile has been slow for us, it will be an important market further down the line. It ran some auctions last year but for construction in 2020/21.” By the time the likes of Chile is ready to add new wind capacity, there would have been several years of operating experience at Pampa and other projects in the region, placing Nordex in a good position to expand its ever-growing Latin American installed base. Turbine tower erection went smoothly in spite of the challenging schedule As many as 12 turbines were erected per month at the peak of activities Pampa was ready to transmit its full 142 MW to the grid in December 2016 Turbine blades were assembled on the ground before being “star-lifted” to the top of the tower A nacelle being installed at the top of a tower Special Project Supplement
Energy Industry Times February 2017
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