Tower Power

XLERPLATE® steel from BlueScope Steel is at the heart of Australia's newest power generation industry. Victorian firm Keppel Prince Engineering has used its expertise in steel tower construction to win a key role in the rapidly growing wind power generation industry.

The company supplied and installed 35 towers made from XLERPLATE® steel for the A$76 million Challicum Hills wind farm which opened near Ararat on November 22.

It has tendered for fabrication of 120 towers at the much larger A$270 million Portland Wind Energy Project planned for a site near its own production facility in regional Victoria.

Both wind farms are operated by Pacific Hydro Limited which specialises in the generation of electricity from non-polluting wind and water.

Pacific Hydro is Australia's largest generator of wind energy and is developing more environmentally sensitive wind generation projects at sites around Australia.

Keppel Prince Engineering first won a wind tower fabrication contract in 2001 when it supplied 14 towers made from XLERPLATE® steel for the pioneering Codrington wind farm in Victoria.

Steve Garner, general manager of Keppel Prince Engineering comments: "The size of the fabrications and the tightness of construction timetables mean that the accurate and finely timed delivery of a precise set of XLERPLATE® steel plates for each tower is imperative.

"BlueScope Steel has been able to achieve a perfect delivery schedule into Smorgon Steel for them to strip plates and deliver them to us, on a just-in-time basis.

Simon Fieldsend, Sales Manager Victoria with BlueScope Steel, confirmed that close communication had been essential for BlueScope Steel to maintain a tight schedule, yet respond to rapid changes in project volumes.

Keppel Prince has used modified XLERPLATE® 350 grade steel in thicknesses from 12 milimetre to 60 milimetre to fabricate the 65 metre towers for the just opened Challicum Hills wind farm.

Each tower will provide 1.5 megawatts of clean energy into Victoria's main power grid.

XLERPLATE® steel will also feature in the fabrication of components for Keppel Prince's first wind power export order.

Two days after the opening of the Challicum Hills facility the company won an order to supply 55 tower "embed" sections for a new wind farm on New Zealand's north island.