Musselroe Wind Farm FCAS Trial

Project overview

Lead Organisation
Musselroe Wind Farm Pty Ltd (Woolnorth Wind Farm Holding Pty Ltd)
Location
Woolnorth, Tasmania
ARENA Program
Advancing Renewables Program
Start date
19 January 2018
End date
31 August 2022
Project Partners
None
This renewables project was completed on 31 August 2022.

Summary

The Musselroe Wind Farm FCAS Trial project is aimed at understanding the economic and commercial case for FCAS participation by wind farms and if viable, enabling the frequency controllers at Musselroe Wind Farm.

The Project will support the business case for current and future participants seeking to participate in the FCAS market. The project will also evaluate the installation of utility-scale storage to capture energy currently not dispatched due to a combination of network and wholesale market conditions, as well as providing FCAS and other grid support services from Musselroe Wind Farm.

Key results

The trial successfully provided FCAS services within the NEM’s specifications. Over the course of nearly 3 years, several software updates and configuration changes, as well as 21 separate tests, on 14 May 2021, Musselroe Wind Farm was able to successfully test and prove compatibility with the NEM requirements for FCAS provision, and was registered for FCAS in November 2021.

The critical outputs of the project include:

demonstration of the ability of an existing wind farm with Vestas turbines to deliver FCAS and undertake a series of tests in consultation with TasNetworks and AEMO
summary of the commercial and economic assessment of wind farm participation in the FCAS market
determination of the requirements for interfacing with AEMO for the purposes of control, communications, and wind forecasting
determination of the technical impact of enabling FCAS in an existing wind farm rather than a new build wind farm
evaluation of the integration of utility-scale battery storage to help provide FCAS as well as capture and sell “spilled wind” energy that would otherwise be curtailed
detail of MRWF’s participation in the FCAS market.

This project consists of:

Project Knowledge

Contact

Name: Rick Haines, Engineering and Projects Manager
Email: rick.haines@woolnorthwind.com.au

Last updated
11 November 2022

Learn more

Report: Musselroe Wind Farm Public Report

The final project report outlines the economic and commercial case for FCAS participation by wind farms and the results of enabling frequency controllers at Musselroe Wind Farm.

Report: Mussleroe Wind Farm Provision of FCAS

This report discusses the ability of an existing wind farm to deliver FCAS into the market, and will support the business case for current and future participants seeking to participate in this market.

Media Release: Tassie Wind Farm to Trial Grid Stability Services

ARENA announced funding to Woolnorth’s 168MW Musselroe wind farm for a groundbreaking trial to investigate the economic and commercial potential of wind farms providing frequency control to stabilise the grid.

Report: Mussleroe Wind Farm Lessons Learnt Progress

This report provides an update on the understanding of the economic and commercial case for FCAS participation to support the business case for current and future participants seeking to participate in this market.

How the project works

This Musselroe Wind Farm FCAS Trial project will enhance the understanding of the technical specifications and envelope for the individual plant components of wind farms, exploring options within these parameters to achieve an Ancillary Services capability.

Wind farms have not been traditional providers of regulation and contingency FCAS services in the NEM. Once the technical feasibility has been assessed the project will move to investigating economic and commercial viability.

The storage assessment component will look to further improve the connection strength and enhance the plant capabilities of wind farms.

Benefit

With the level of intermittent generating capacity entering the NEM increasing, together with the retirement of synchronous coal-fired capacity in recent years, network security and reliability has become a strong market focus. Through this project, new and existing wind farm projects will be able to assess the merits of incorporating FCAS market capability, with the ultimate aim to provide greater network support.

By building confidence in inverter based asynchronous technology, the project aims to demonstrate the improved connection opportunities for wind farms and the development of complementary revenue streams.

Area of innovation

This project is developing further understanding in technical FCAS provision for variable generation, including dynamic optimisation assessments which will be required in power systems in the future where intermittent generation is significant. Similarly, the application of specialist assessments across the entire business value stream of the wind farm for storage scenarios and solutions will enhance the understanding of future hybrid solutions to maximise the value of intermittent generation.

Musselroe Wind Farm website