Previously, Paul had posted how Berrybank Wind Farms 1 and 2, in Victoria, were offline since the morning of the 4th February 2025:
In that article we noted that the damage to a turbine was being attributed to storms that lashed the state on Monday evening and Tuesday morning (the evening of the 3rd and into the 4th).
Today attention was brought to a wind farm in SA, Willogoleche which, coincidentally, had also stopped on the morning of February 4, courtesy LinkedIn:
The presence of storms currently appears to be the only connection between Berrybank and Willogoleche at the moment.
The SA SES reported a Bureau Of Meteorology warning for damaging winds on the 3rd.
The Willogoleche Wind Farm isn’t far from Clare so it is likely that site could have experienced strong gusts associated with the storms if they persisted into the 4th, being located in/near to the warning area.
Limited detail in the Willogoleche rebid
The rebid explanation of Willogoleche indicated only “Station Outage Commencing” as the unit’s max availability in the bid was set to 0 MW, effective in the 07:25 interval.
Outage supported by elements available dropping to zero
Data on elements available suggests the decision to shut down was implemented quickly.
The market data on the Willogoleche wind farm indicates there are 32 wind turbines, and yet on the 4th, a peak of 25 were available. Seven were already unavailable before the event.
We do note that zero availability preceded the setting of elements available to zero.
Other differences
The GSD2024, handily released yesterday, informs us in the ‘A’ Page on unit statistics, that Berrybank and Willogoleche are indeed managed by different parties, so no apparent operational connection there. Further, the turbine type for each site is different also (Vestas vs GE) meaning no direct common maintenance connection either.
GSD2024 unit information for Berrybank 1 and Willogoleche wind farms
I think we wait for the investigation. Vestas quote a withstand of around 180km/h for this model of turbine. Either there was a specific issue with this tower (the failure seems to be at the top lift joint of the tower) or it will be a very localised wind event beyond its design capability – not unusual in thunderstorms. The photos clearly show the proximity to other turbines that survived – though perhaps not without damage. We have seen the enormous power of swirling winds on transmission towers in recent history and this is likely no different.
Well said Andy!