Progress on 212-MW Aussie wind project secured while Senvion deals with insolvency

Nexif Energy said today it has made arrangements to ensure that work on its 212-MW Lincoln Gap wind farm in Australia will continue as planned while the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, Senvion SA (ETR:SEN), addresses its financial difficulties.

Senvion, the debt-laden German wind turbine maker, earlier in April entered preliminary self-administered insolvency proceedings.

Lincoln Gap will use 56 Senvion 3.6M140 turbines. Three of these have been brought online this month and are exporting power to the grid. In order to keep the project on track, Nexif Energy has made arrangements to channel funds to the project’s subcontractors and service providers. This includes direct payment of amounts owing to continue work on the wind park.

The independent power producer, a joint venture between Singapore-based Nexif and private equity firm Denham Capital, said that it started looking for a solution as soon as it became aware of Senvion’s difficulties, and it has negotiated measures with the latter successfully. Senvion’s direct subcontractors have been notified of the arrangements and are expecting their payments in the coming days, Nexif Energy added.

The wind park is planned to be fully operational in mid-2020. Currently, there is one extra tall crane at the Lincoln Gap wind farm site near Port Augusta and a second one is to arrive in early May to speed up turbine installation.

In addition to the wind turbines, the Lincoln Gap project also includes a 10-MW battery storage system by Fluence. Once up and running, the park will be selling Large-Scale Generation Certificates (LGCs) to ERM Power under long-term contracts. It also has long-term offtake agreements with Snowy Hydro.