Ormazabal supplies a flexible and viable design for Bell Bay Solar Farm in Australia

Connection to the electricity grid presents one of the key challenges for energy projects in general, renewable energy projects in particular.

Moreover, Renewable projects such as Bell Bay , encompassing solar generation, require meticulous planning and execution to ensure a successful, on time, on budget project outcome. This necessitated close collaboration and open communication between stakeholders – Climate Capital, Ormazabal Australia and Ormazabal Spain.

Climate Capital invests in renewable projects around Australia. They build, own and operate projects which are behind-the-meter or present the ability to contract electricity offtake with a corporate counterparty; are 1 – 100MW in capacity; and offer sector and geographic diversification to Climate Capital’s existing portfolio.

Climate Capital’s mandate is to deliver and enable renewable energy projects that provide environmental, social and financial benefits. They do this by working with a wide range of corporate energy users, energy consultants, project developers, vendors and other proponents

Climate Capital operates a co-investing model with its corporate shareholders who are a mix of social impact and family office investors. In addition, Climate Capital maintains strategic relationships with a range of institutional investors.

We continue to seek and develop strategic project investments to which we can add value and support delivery.

“I am very happy with product and services that you have been provided from the initial design stage to now. The primary challenge for the project was design flexibility and a viable solution that would be needed in a rapidly changing environment. Ormazabal Australia Engineering Manager Manu Shibu assisted greatly in the solution development with its 24kVcgmcosmos switchgear and ekor.rpa-200 series protection systems, along with their ability to provide timely responses to customer queries in a collaborative and proactive manner”.
Mahesh Warusapperuma, Asset Manager at Climate Capital.

Ormazabal challenge and solution:

Ormazabal Australia supplied 5units of 24kV 630A 20kA 1s, IAC AFLR 20kA/1s —-cgmcosmos panels for the grid connection station..

For the project Climate Capital also chose to use Ormazabal’s ekor rpa 220 series protection system. Ormazabal subsequently incorporated this requirement into its manufacturing plan highlighting its ability to adapt to differing customer requirements.

Ormazabal has extensive experience of providing grid connection switchboards. However, in addition to supplying switchgear for the project, Ormazabal’s also joined forces with Climate capital to develop a design that is compact and met the DNSP rules and requirements.

A collaborative approach in project management enabled the coordinated delivery of switchgear with a direct benefit of reducing delivery leadtime for the customer.

The COSMOS switchgear also included Ormazabal’s IAC chimney system integrated into the design for the venting of gases outside the switch Kiosk ensuring a safe environment for operator staff.

Omazabal ekor.rpa-200 series relays are an advanced protection, metering and multifunction control unit that have been designed to meet automation needs in distribution networks, as a result from ever more stringent demands in terms of supply quality. Depending on the model, the ekor.rpa 200 series can incorporate current, voltage and frequency protection functions, as well as automation, local/remote control, metering of electrical parameters, presence and absence of voltage, phase imbalance, etc. There are also variants depending on the characteristics of the voltage metering channels (capacitive, standardised and transformers).

Benefits of Ormazabal solution:

Compact solution in cubicle

Integration in the control compartment

Reduced commissioning

Unit assembled, cabled and tested in the factory
Current transformers installed in the bushing.

Reliability

Optimisation of mean time between failures (MTBF)
Programmable vs. cabled automation
Safety redundancy: backup tripping coil

Key benefits to client:

Ormazabal’s extensive experience in delivering connecting points enabled a flexible and pragmatic approach to delivering a timely project outcome in a rapidly changing environment.
The cgmcosmos solution negates the need to work with SF6 during switchgear installation. This enabled simpler installation into the outdoor kiosk saving time.
Combining Ormazabal’s well documented training and supervision with locally engaged partners whom are conversant with local compliance requirements meant that we could be flexible throughout the project duration with regards to scope changes.
Ormazabal’sintegrated protection systems provide more leverage in the commissioning stages of this project