Enspec helps keep wind farm project on track
24/12/2020
Enspec Power Limited, the power quality engineering specialist, has announced another successful power system study project, this time for the Beinn an Tuirc Phase 3 wind farm on the Kintyre peninsular in Scotland. The study was conducted in parallel to another Enspec project to supply a shunt reactor for the SSE plc connection of the wind farm to the National Grid.Grid code compliance is always an issue for wind farms because of the complex switching requirements and Enspec, based in the UK, has built a strong reputation for analysing, modelling and designing wind farm switching systems. Tim Rastall, Enspec Director, said: “It is important to model switching at an early stage, otherwise you can store up delays for later in the project. We are increasingly carrying out studies early in projects, but we are also still seeing projects dealing with unforeseen grid code compliance issues late in the project and needing studies very quickly to get them back on track with a solution.”
Enspec has invested heavily in the software and expertise needed for system studies and the design knowledge needed for point-on-wave switching solutions and related technologies. “It means we can help clients at any stage in their project, reactively problem solving to get a project back on track or at an early design phase,” said Tim.
For the Beinn an Tuirc Phase 3 project, Enspec ran a transient recovery voltage (TRV) study to ensure the 33 kV circuit breaker was sufficiently rated to switch the shunt reactor. Enspec was picked for the project by Kirby Engineering and the project is managed by SSE plc for ScottishPower Renewables.
Enspec was chosen because of its ability to meet an urgent need for a new study and because the company was already supplying the shunt reactors. Enspec also has a history of previous successful projects for SSE plc group companies. The contract was awarded in September 2020 and the first iteration of the study was delivered the same month.
