Tilt Renewables: Dundonnell wind farm ready but issue over full electricity generation
Tilt Renewables has finished installing 80 turbines on its Dundonnell wind farm but has to wait for approval from the energy regulator to move to full capacity.
TILT Renewables has completed turbine construction at its Dundonnell wind farm in Victoria’s Western District but it may not be able to run at full capacity for some months.
The wind farm has a maximum output of 336 megawatts of power if all 80 turbines are operating but the Australian Electricity Market Operator is limiting its generation to 113MW from 27 of the turbines.
The renewable power company was able to switch between the 80 turbines to ensure each was operating properly.
Tilt Renewables chief financial officer Steve Symons said the underlying issue centred on making sure the wind farm was meeting all technical parameters so that it did not compromise the stability of the grid.
“We are working with AEMO to understand their exact concerns so that we are allowed to get to our 336MW maximum level of production,” Mr Symons said.
Tilt Renewables is unclear about how long it will take before the wind farm is able to ramp up from its current level of one third of capacity.
The power company has revised its earnings for 2020-21 from its May forecast of $80-$95 million down to $65-$80 million as a result of the uncertainty.
Mr Symons described the situation as a “short-term blip” but said investors needed to understand the wind farm had a 30-year life span.
“We are missing out on the revenue we budgeted for,” he said.
“Once we resolve this, revenue will be at what we modelled for.”
Mr Symons said Tilt Renewables was in a very good financial position and returned $260 million of cash from the sale of one of its Snowtown wind farms in South Australia to investors through cancellation of 93.8 million shares.
“We still have a good amount of cash on our balance sheet.” he said.
“So we are in a good financial position.”
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