Gold Fields Granny Smith gold mine is set to install one of the world’s largest renewable energy microgrids, powered by over 20,000 solar panels and backed up by a 2 MW /1 MWh battery system.
The mining company has contracted mobile and modular power company Aggreko to design, build and operate the 8 MW solar power generation system and the battery system at Granny Smith, located east of Laverton in Western Australia’s Goldfields region.
the renewable power microgrid solution
We are thrilled to reach an agreement with Aggreko for the design, installation, and operation of this innovative source"
Gold Fields Executive Vice President Australasia, Stuart Mathews, said the renewable energy microgrid is part of Gold Fields’ vision of leadership in sustainable gold mining, “We are thrilled to reach an agreement with Aggreko for the design, installation, and operation of this innovative source of renewable energy which will generate nearly enough power to run the mine’s processing operations,” Mathews said.
“We expect the renewable power microgrid will be up and running at Granny Smith by Q4 2019 and it will be a welcome addition to our suite of on-site energy solutions across other operations which will enable us to reduce our carbon footprint,” he said.
hybrid off-grid microgrids
Construction of the renewable energy system is planned to commence in May 2019 and, when completed, will be one of the world’s largest hybrid off-grid microgrids and integrated with Aggreko’s existing 24.2 MW natural gas generation.
Aggreko AusPac Managing Director, George Whyte, said the solar, thermal, and battery storage assets will be seamlessly integrated and managed by Aggreko’s control software platform maintaining full system availability and optimizing the lifetime of existing thermal assets.
performance, cost, and environmental advantages
“The solar-plus-battery system is projected to reduce fuel consumption by 10-13% – the equivalent of removing 2,000 cars from the road and producing about 18 GWh of clean energy per year. Gold Fields understands the performance, cost, and environmental advantages for their operation, as well as the need to integrate this resource into their system without compromising power supply reliability or mining productivity,” he said.
While solar PV will reduce the need to run thermal generators, the battery plant will provide essential services such as spinning reserve displacement, PV ramp rate control, and transient voltage/frequency support.