Macarthur wind farm of 420 MW among worst performers in Australia

The 420-MW Macarthur wind farm in Victoria state, Australia, has never reached a capacity factor above 28.63%, RenewEconomy reports, citing data from the Climate and Energy College.

In fact, the year through June 2017 has been Macarthur’s worst so far with a capacity factor of just 23.72%. The Australian clean energy website says this is the lowest level for a wind farm in Victoria and one of the lowest in the country, where certain wind farms now produce power at capacity factors of about 40%.

A spokesperson for AGL Energy (ASX:AGK), which operates and maintains Macarthur, told RenewEconomy the fiscal 2016/17 performance had been affected by planned outages and unfavourable wind conditions. This does not explain why the wind park never reached the 35% capacity factor mentioned when the project started, nor why other wind assets are performing much better.

The Macarthur wind park, which uses 140 pieces of Vestas’ 3-MW V112 turbines, was put online in 2013. Malaysia's Malakoff Corp Bhd in 2013 bought the 50% held by Meridian Energy Ltd, while AGL Energy in 2015 sold its 50% stake to HRL Morrison & Co managed funds.

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