One of Ireland’s fastest growing high voltage (HV) electrical design and build companies Powerteam, a wholly owned subsidiary of ESB, is in the final stages of completing the £3.6m electrical Substation construction and fit out for the Athea wind farm in County Limerick.
The wind farm, located to the north of Abbeyfeale, close to the village of Athea, will add a further 34MW of wind capacity to SSE’s portfolio, bringing its total operational wind farm capacity in Ireland to over 500MW.
Powerteam was responsible for the electrical design of the substation which will connect the 16 turbine wind farm to the electricity grid, procurement of equipment, civil engineering work, installation of electrical equipment, commissioning and testing of installed equipment and overall project management.
Alastair Dawson, Managing Director, Powerteam said: “The Athea project is our seventh wind farm project for SSE and our 42nd wind farm project in the UK and Ireland. Those 42 wind farms represent enough renewable energy to power more than 675,000 homes for a whole year.
“During construction Powerteam employed 25 people and helped boost the economies of nearby towns by working with various local suppliers.”
Athea, and other SSE wind farms located in West Limerick, will help towards achieving Ireland’s national target of 40% renewables by 2020 and the EU’s mandatory 20% reduction in carbon emissions.
Alastair concluded: “We are delighted to be part of the Athea project which builds upon our relationship with SSE both in the UK and Ireland. It is also pleasing to be nearing completion of the Athea project having completed similar work on the Dromada wind farm in 2010, also for SSE Renewables, a few miles from Athea.”
Seamus Lynch, SSE Renewables Project Manager for Athea Wind Farm, commented: “Over the coming months we’ll be assembling the remaining turbines, and we aim to complete the handover of Athea to our SSE generation colleagues by December 2013. When completed, SSE’s Co. Limerick wind farms will have a combined generation capacity of 68MW, producing enough energy to power up to 350000 homes.”
Powerteam are currently working on a number of other wind farm projects in the UK and Ireland together with various large scale electrical infrastructure projects for customers such as Scottish Power, Northern Powergrid, Electricity North West and SSE.
