More capacity for Australian solar park with Ormazabal technology

At the end of 2021, the Limondale solar park near the small community of Balranald in south-eastern Australia went into operation as one of the country’s largest photovoltaic power plants.

Spread over 900 hectares, around 872,000 PV modules generate a total capacity of 349 MW (249 MWac) – enough to supply over 100,000 Australian households with green electricity. Its 114th inverter went into operation in September 2021. With this, Limondale reached its maximum capacity. “This would not have been possible without our professional team on site and our close collaboration with our stakeholders and suppliers,” says Peter Veljkovic, Head of Development & Operations at RWE Renewables Australia, which built the solar farm.

To ensure that the solar power can be reliably fed into the local grid, SMA, the German specialist for photovoltaic system technology, supplied 57 of its Medium Voltage Power Stations 5500 (MVPS). These consist of a robust central inverter and its corresponding medium-voltage components. SMA has been working with Ormazabal for over five years in the field of medium-voltage technology. The medium-voltage switchgear for the MVPS in this project also comes from our production. In addition to the well-established cgm.3 switchgear, several cgm.800 cubicles were also installed, which are suitable for higher rated currents of up to 800 A. Jurek Aengenvoort, Key Account Manager at Ormazabal Germany  explains the benefits of the solution: “This allows the cable layout to be optimized in the planning of a mammoth project such as the Limondale Solar Farm, saving costs in the implementation.”. The cgm.800 cubicles incorporate a protection relay from Ormazabal’s ekorsys product family, and have a 25 kA / 1 s short-circuit withstand capability, thus contributing to the station’s reliability.

“Because both SMA and we at Ormazabal are global companies, we can create valuable synergies in projects such as the Limondale Solar Farm – especially because renewable energy is one of our focus segments,” says Jurek Aengenvoort. “We are pleased to be part of this successful project with our products and thus make an important contribution on the road towards the energy transition.”