Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: While Pakistanis were dreaming of an end to power outages, international renewable energy leaders announced the world’s first utility-scale energy park project for on-grid hybrid integration of wind, solar and battery storage.

According to a press statement issued in Singapore on Monday, a partnership between renewable energy industry leaders announced the final details of a project that will help accelerate the transition to an energy mix led by renewable energy. The project aims to provide even more reliable and consistent renewable energy production adapted to energy demand and grid requirements, it added.

Australia’s international renewable energy company, Windlab, has developed the first of its kind project with support from Vestas, the global leader in sustainable energy solutions. The innovative 60.2 MW Kennedy Energy Park – Phase 1 was designed to supply consistent and reliable renewable electricity that can help meet power demand in Australia.

Kennedy – Phase 1 can also shape a path forward for how Australia and other countries can integrate more renewable energy into their energy mix and address grid stability challenges that have been a traditional restraint to greater uptake of renewable energy, a Windpower statement said.

The project is located in Flinders Shire in central north Queensland, Australia, which is blessed with world-class wind and solar resources. Kennedy – Phase 1 will feature 43.2 MW of Vestas’ V136-3.6 MW wind turbines, 15 MW of solar and 2 MW/4 MWh Li Ion battery storage, all managed by a Vestas customised control system that will operate the hybrid power plant.

In order to support further hybrid projects in Australia or elsewhere, Windlab, with Vestas, will share the knowledge and experience from building and operating Kennedy – Phase 1, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

Windlab Limited is a global renewable energy development company, established to commercialize world-leading atmospheric modelling and wind energy assessment technology, developed by Australia’s premier scientific research institute, the CSIRO.

Vestas is the energy industry’s global partner on sustainable energy solutions that design, manufacture, install, and service wind turbines across the globe. With 85 GW of wind turbines in 75 countries, Vestas have installed more wind power than anyone else.

A senior energy sector expert in Islamabad observed that Pakistan would have to go for similar projects, following in the footsteps of Australia; otherwise an end to load shedding might remain a pipe dream. Asked about the claims by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s government of increasing sizeable power production with completion of gas based projects, the expert said production by those projects was considerably smaller if compared against the ever increasing demand in the country.

Requesting not to be named, he said, the government trumpeting China-Pakistan Economic Corridor would usher in an economic boom were perhaps unaware of bigger challenges of the energy sector. The government had still been fighting with the chronic problem of load-shedding through their political rhetoric, even after 4 years of their 5-year tenure, he said.

Published in Daily Times, October 24^th 2017.