Mott MacDonald is monitoring construction of the Sidrap wind farm in South Sulawesi, Indonesia on behalf of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). The scheme will be the country’s first commercial-scale wind farm.
The 75MW wind farm, which reached financial close earlier in 2017, will comprise 30 Gamesa G114-2.5MW wind turbine generators located along three ridges on a relatively complex site. The turbines will connect to a project substation, where the voltage will be increased from 33kV to 150kV. This will then connect to a nearby transmission line through a switching station, via a new 2.7km four circuit transmission line. Once operational, Sidrap will produce approximately 250GWh of renewable electricity per year, enough to power over 100,000 homes.
Mott MacDonald has acted as technical, environmental and social advisor to OPIC and SMBC since 2015, performing a holistic due diligence of the project in order to identify any completion or operational risks. This included assessing the technical capabilities of each party involved in the project, analysing construction management and execution and reviewing the project schedule, agreements and financial model. Where risks were identified, the consultancy assessed proposed mitigation strategies and provided suggestions for additional mitigation measures. Mott MacDonald is now monitoring construction and will monitor operations once the scheme is complete in an ongoing role.
Robin Ingram, Mott MacDonald’s project manager, said: “This project is an important milestone for Indonesia as it sets the stage for further wind farm development in the country. Our expertise was key in helping OPIC and SMBC become comfortable enough to finance the project as we alleviated any concerns about the relatively new wind sector in Indonesia, as well as the highly multi-contractual approach chosen by the developer which is different to the typical approach usually found in the region.”
Sidrap is expected to be commissioned in early 2018.