The 140MW Kangnas Wind Farm, on the outskirts of Springbok, celebrated the successful energisation of its main transformer this week.
The 250MVA transformer is locally manufactured and arrived in the Northern Cape via road from Gauteng last week. Housed at the Groeipunt Transmission substation, the transformer receives generated power from the wind farm via a distribution network, where it is responsible to step the voltage up from 132kV to 220kV.
“We are grateful to the 97-strong construction crew, which comprises both the wind farm and Groeipunt team, who diligently worked to energise the substation and hence complete this key construction milestone, bringing us one step closer to our full operations,” explained Manie Kotzé, Construction Project Manager of Kangnas Wind Farm.
The demand for local manufacturers to provide components that were previously only available through import, has steadily increased. This is in line with the Department of Energy’s local content requirements, which have progressively increased with each bid window.
Kangnas Wind Farm, 46km outside of Springbok, in the Khoi Municipal area, commenced construction during June 2018. As with all the wind farms that were under construction at the time the country’s national COVID-19 lockdown commenced at the end of March 2020, construction at this Northern Cape wind farm, was halted and gradually picked up pace after 19May 2020.
“Our team is working tirelessly to try catch up as much of this lost time as possible and expect to start working towards grid connection in the next few weeks, which means that we can begin grid code compliance testing relatively soon,” added Kotzé.
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 Kangnas Wind Farm.
