Wind Park of Santo Antão
Operational Performance
The operational availability of the wind park increased continuously in the period 2011/2015 from 74% to 84% (Figure1). On 2017 it was registered a sharp decrease of the operational availability due to a major damage occurred on one of the wind turbine units. However, generally, the operational availability has been considered very good taking into account that the wind turbine units are second hand units with almost 25 years of operation.
The evolution of electricity production follows the same pattern than that of the operational availability. The average yearly production is about 1.550 MWh (excepting the atypical years of 2011 and 2017) which represents around 97% of the amount previously estimated during the planning stage.
Until 2014, the island of Santo Antão was served by two separated electrical systems. In the period 2011/2014, the yearly average wind power penetration on the particular electric system to which the wind park was connected, varied between 14% and 25%.
After the interconnection of the two electrical systems on 2015, wind penetration is then calculated in relation to the whole island, varying between 5% and 13%.
Economic and Environmental Impact
The total investment of this project was about 900.000,00 € (1.800 €/kW), including the 50% grant awarded by the Government of The Netherlands.
The Project of Wind Park of Santo Antão does not benefit from a subsidized price for the electricity injected into the electric grid. The income results only from the power purchase agreement signed with the electric national utility. Even so, the financial results have been positive for all the partners involved.
The fuel saving allowed by the wind power production during the period 2011/2018, represents a financial saving on fuel import amounting to almost twice the project cost. This is an impressive macro-indicator for a country that imports almost 90% of national goods consumption.
The environment benefited from the saving of 6.909 Ton of CO2 emission, an average of 864 Ton/year.
Concerning the electric national utility ELECTRA, the operation of the wind park has been very profitable, considering that the purchase price of the wind power electricity feed into the grid has been much lower than the avoided cost of fuel.
Finally, regarding the company ELECTRIC WIND the financial results have been also positive allowing the company to pay all its investment costs.
