Perdekraal East Wind Farm receives its main transformer by road transportation
The main transformer for the 110 MW Perdekraal East Wind Farm, in the Western Cape, has arrived by road transportation from Pretoria, marking another important milestone in the project's construction.
The 500 MVA megatransformer was locally manufactured, which added to the wind farm’s local content percentage.
The wind farm also procured locally manufactured turbine towers.
Increasing local content requirements have driven demand for local manufacturing as each bid window of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme has progressed.
Perdekraal East construction project manager Glenn Hobson says the project’s obligation for local content exceeds 48% of the total project value, making it a truly South African endeavour.
Meanwhile, the main transformer will be housed in a substation situated outside of Ceres. Its job is to step up the voltage produced by the wind farm to 400 kV, rendering it suitable for the national grid.
Perdekraal East is one of 12 wind farms currently being built in South Africa.
The wind farm is expected to be connected to the grid by the end of July.