AMSC signs additional contracts in Australia

DEVENS, MASSACHUSETTS - American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC), a global energy technologies company, announced that its D-VAR grid interconnection solution has been ordered for two additional wind farms under construction in Australia.

These are the 50th and 51st wind farms to have purchased AMSCÂ’s D-VAR systems worldwide and AMSCÂ’s 6th and 7th deployments in Australia.

Both of the D-VAR solutions included in these new contracts will be deployed to enable wind farms to meet local grid interconnection requirements. AMSC will provide a D-VAR system to Suzlon Energy Australia Pty. Ltd., a subsidiary of IndiaÂ’s Suzlon Energy Limited, for the 132 megawatt (MW) AGL Hallett 4 (North Brown Hill) Wind Farm being erected outside of Jamestown, South Australia.

AMSC also will provide a D-VAR system to Consolidated Power Projects Australia Pty Ltd. for Roaring 40s Renewable Energy Pty Ltd.Â’s 111 MW Waterloo Wind Farm currently under construction approximately 100 kilometers north of Adelaide in South Australia. Both D-VAR systems will be delivered within the next six months.

Customers can utilize AMSCÂ’s D-VAR solutions to provide voltage regulation, power factor correction and post-contingency assistance to help prevent voltage collapse on the power grid to which the wind farms are connected. These solutions enable wind farm developers to meet grid interconnection requirements adopted in countries such as Australia.

“In order to help facilitate the integration of electricity generated from renewable sources of energy, Australia is requiring that the reactive compensation of wind power plants be similar to that of traditional generation plants,” said Timothy Poor, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development at AMSC. “As a result, we are seeing a growing pipeline of opportunities for our best-in-class D-VAR solution. With Australia recently setting a target to derive 20 percent of its electricity needs from renewable sources by 2020, we believe this will be a sizable market for AMSC for many years to come.”