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Consulting Matters Project Case Study
AAPOWERLINK PROJECT
Copyright 5B
Founded in 2018, Sun Cable is an Australian, world-leading renewable energy company. Their mission is to develop systems to supply renewable electricity from resource abundant regions to growing load centres, at scale to power the Indo-Pacific region with competitively priced, dispatchable, high volume renewable electricity. The AAPowerLink project is the first of its kind and the first of many.
The AAPowerLink will provide Darwin and Singapore with high quality, dispatchable renewable electricity supply.
Rapid advancements in renewable energy and battery technology, combined with the evolutionary changes in HVDC cable systems (reducing cost and increasing efficiency and reliability) have made it economical to transport energy over long distances.
Construction is expected to take four to five years and is proposed to start around early 2024. Supply of power to the Northern Territory is planned to commence in 2026, with supply to Singapore to commence in 2027 with the system fully operational by the end of 2028.
Sun Cable’s energy projects will position Australia, Singapore and other markets in Asia as world leaders in intercontinental transmission of renewable electricity. This infrastructure will facilitate the electrification of new and existing industries, supporting large-scale economic development, whilst reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We are an international company with employees working across the region. We have offices in Singapore, Jakarta, Sydney, Darwin, Canberra and Brisbane.
Overview of the project Sun Cable is developing the Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink), a high-capacity solar generation, storage and transmission system that will transmit large volumes of renewable electricity from the Barkly Region of the Northern Territory to Darwin and Singapore markets.
A world-leading team of highly skilled experts from SMEC (Surbana Jurong Group), Bechtel, Hatch, Marsh, and PwC Australia have assembled to deliver this multi gigawatt scale project.
The AAPowerLink project comprises a number of key components: • Solar farm precinct including energy storage and voltage source converter (VSC) at Powell Creek near Elliott in the Northern Territory; • High voltage direct current (HVDC) overhead transmission line (OHTL) from the solar farm to Darwin; • VSC and a utility-scale battery in Darwin; • Cable Transition Facilities to enable transition of power cables between land and sea in Darwin and Singapore • Subsea HVDC cable system from Darwin to Singapore; and VSC and utility-scale battery in Singapore.
