Sapphire Wind Farm

Australian developer CWP Renewables, now Squadron Energy, had an ambitious goal to develop the largest Wind Farm operating in NSW. In a sector where timeframes and milestones are key, the smallest efficiencies can come together to make smart solutions that make a big difference in the customer’s connections process. Reliability of the core systems that ensure the energy produced is supplied into the National Electricity Market, in a cost effective way, was a key challenge for LUMEA.

Sapphire Wind Farm is the largest wind farm development in NSW. Approximately 100MW of its capacity is secured under a PPA with the ACT government. It now powers 115,000 homes and displaces 700,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. Bringing together the smartest solutions, Lumea provided both energy access infrastructure services as well as telecommunications connectivity. Lumea designed, built, owns and operates the assets required for getting power into the grid, and will continue to be a partner to Sapphire for a 26 year term.

As one of our earlier major contestable asset infrastructure projects, the LUMEA team faced a series of technical and economic ‘firsts’, including connecting a renewable energy generator to a high voltage interconnector, which ensures that energy can flow securely between two major States.

The team successfully navigated the challenges, working collaboratively and cohesively with all stakeholders to drive an increasingly time and process efficient approach to the work. New ways of delivering bespoke energy infrastructure services included connecting to the Queensland interconnector, resulting in a one of a kind complex protection system. On top of this, the civil design developed new piled footing designs throughout the substation which saved on construction time and cost, and using different, more efficient battery technology saving the need for a dedicated battery room. Lumea’s solution meant that the Sapphire Wind Farm was connected to the grid, and to integral telecommunications services, within the timeframe and under budget.