Areva Wind Farm Project in Ireland

AREVA’s Transmission and Distribution division has won a wind power contract to provide cutting edge technology which will enable Airtricity, Ireland’s No 1 supplier and generator of wind energy to determine the feasibility of Dunneill Wind Farm in Co Sligo, Ireland.

The Dunneill Wind Farm project is an 11MW (13 wind turbines) Wind Farm located in Co. Sligo, Ireland and an extension of the King’s Mountain 25 MW (10 turbine) Wind Farm. Both wind farms are set to be connected to the TSO (Transmission Service Operator) Eirgrid transmission system at the Cunghill 110 kV Substation.

In partnership with Mantle PQD (Power Quality Design), AREVA T&D will utilise its bespoke STATCOM SVC MaxSine solution to ensure full wind farm Grid Code compliance, as implemented by National Grid back in 2009. Mark Wetton, Regional Vice President for North West Europe at AREVA T&D comments:

“Utilities and TSOs are increasing the Grid Code demands for wind farms connected to their grids and full compliance is vital. The STATCOM SVC MaxSine has been designed with this need in mind. By leveraging our strong customer relationship with Mantle PQD, we were able to deliver world class expertise and cutting edge technology.”

Performance tests on the solution will be are carried out by a custom-made Real Time Digital Simulation (RTDS®) system. As the fastest STATCOM currently on the market, it has the capability to respond in less than one millisecond to any voltage change to ensure Grid Code compliance.

Since the compensation current of the SVC MaxSine is regulated, the compensation quality is independent of both network impedance and of the mains voltage distortion that could be caused by voltage harmonics, dips or flicker.

The operation of other loads connected to the network is not influenced by the shunt active filter, MaxSine Unit. The project includes a comprehensive service from AREVA T&D comprising supervision of assembly and installation; commissioning, factory and on-site acceptance testing and full staff training.

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