- Perdekraal East Wind Farm, in the Western Cape’s Witzenberg Municipality, has received its main transformer via road transportation from Pretoria, marking another important milestone in its construction process.
- This 500MVA mega transformer was locally manufactured in South Africa, which has added to Perdekraal East Wind Farm’s already high local content percentage, as the turbine towers are also locally manufactured.
This is a trend within the sector, which works to meet the Department of Energy’s local content requirements, which have steadily increased with each bid window.
Hence the demand for local manufacturers to offer items previously only available through import has proportionately increased.
“We are pleased to confirm that our obligation for local content exceeds 48% of the total project value, making this a truly South African endeavour,” explained Glenn Hobson, Construction Project Manager for Perdekraal Wind Farm.
The transformer will be housed in the substation that is situated outside of Ceres. Its job is to step up the voltage produced by the wind farm to 400kV, rendering it suitable for the national grid.
This is one of the country’s twelve wind farms currently under construction, which went into a sudden lockdown in March. Activity resumed on-site, late May, having lost over 50 days of work.
“We hadn’t anticipated the full impact of the COVID-19 virus but our team is working hard under the less than ideal situation, considering the added HSE requirements and procedures that are now part of our daily construction protocols,” said Hobson.
CONCO is responsible for the electrical component of the balance of plant works, including the engineering, procurement and construction, as well as the electrical works for Perdekraal East Wind Farm, which is preparing for grid connection by the end of July this year
Author: Babalwa Bungane
Babalwa Bungane is a content creator/editor for ESI Africa – Clarion Events Africa. Babalwa has been writing for the publication for five years. She has a great interest in social media due to its advantage of disseminating content.
This article was originally published on ESI Africa and is republished with permission with minor editorial changes.
