July 15, 2020
Australia

Elaine wind turbines undergoing regular maintenance, project manager says

Alex Ford | The Courier | July 16 2020 | www.thecourier.com.au

Proponents at the Lal Lal Wind Farm have hosed down speculation there are issues with turbines near Elaine.

In a statement, the project manager said wind farms require ongoing maintenance programs, scheduled and unscheduled.

"The stopped turbines at Elaine are due to maintenance matters, be they proactive scheduled maintenance or unfortunate unscheduled maintenance," they said.

"Workers are on-site on an ongoing basis as the maintenance programs on a wind farm the size of Lal Lal typically never stops. Where there is more unscheduled maintenance the public can expect to see greater levels of personnel and plant onsite." They added access tracks were also maintained so workers could continue to get to the turbines.

"We can confirm the following statements, (the) "wiring was wrong" and workers "couldn't get in there to fix them as it's too wet" are incorrect," the project manager said.

The 22 turbines at Elaine were completed earlier this year and began generating electricity for the grid in March.

It's the second part of the 60-turbine project, with another 38 turbines operating near Yendon. Work is continuing on wind farms across the district, including at the 104-turbine Moorabool Wind Farm south of Ballan.

The northern sector of that project is now in the commissioning phase, while the first four turbines had been erected in the southern sector.

The Stockyard Hill Wind farm, between Skipton and Beaufort, has 97 turbines completed out of 149, as of July 3, with 20 commissioned.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/07/15/elaine-wind-turbines-undergoing-regular-maintenance-project-manager-says/