Making Wind Energy Work A Case Study of Western Power’s Ten Mile Lagoon Wind Farm

Western Power is the principal supplier of electricity in the Australian state of Western Australia. The company services a land area of about 2.5 million square kilometres, which includes many remote and isolated communities which rely almost entirely on expensive diesel powered electricity. However, the wind resource in Western Australia is by world standards very good, so to offset the use of diesel in these communities, Western Power established a wind energy program which culminated in wind turbines being installed at a number of locations. This paper will briefly introduce the history of Western Power’s wind energy developments, and in particular discuss the 2 MW wind farm at Ten Mile Lagoon, near Esperance on the state’s south coast. Ten Mile Lagoon was Australia’s first commercial wind farm, and began operation in 1993. This farm delivers power to Esperance’s 16.2 MW diesel powered grid and provides about 12% of the area’s electricity. The paper will provide the history of Ten Mile Lagoon, and discuss the planning and development processes, including the ongoing monitoring of the farm’s performance. In particular, the paper will cover the performance of the farm to date and the effect the wind energy input has had on the local Esperance grid.