Enel Begins Construction on Peru’s Largest Wind Farm

By Anca Gagiuc

Enel Green Power Peru (EGPP), a subsidiary of The Enel Group, started construction on Wayra, a 132-megawatt wind farm in Peru’s district of Marcona, Ica region. The facility is the company’s first wind project in the region and, upon completion, will be the country’s largest wind farm.

The Enel Group will invest roughly $165 million in to the construction of the wind project, which is expected to begin operation in the first half of 2018. Wayra has a 20-year electricity supply contract signed with Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines. The energy it produces will be delivered to the Peruvian transmission grid (SEIN) through the Poroma substation. In 2016, following the fourth public renewable energy tender launched by the Peruvian energy regulator OSINERGMIN, The Enel Group was granted the right to sign the energy supply contracts for Wayra.

Technical specifications

The new wind farm will comprise 42 wind turbines of more than 3 megawatts each and will be able to generate around 600 Gigawatts hour per year (GWh), sufficient to meet the annual consumption needs of more than 480,000 Peruvian households. The project will help offset the emission of nearly 288,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.

EGPP currently has a total capacity of 326 megawatts of wind, solar and hydro awarded in the tender, which could make it the main renewable player in Peru by 2018, as well as the only company operating plants with three different renewable technologies in the country. Other EGPP developments in the Peruvian generation sector include the 180-megawatt Rubí solar plant and the 20-megawatt Ayanunga hydro facility in conjunction with Enel Generación Perú and Enel Generación Piura, which have a combined installed capacity of around 2 Gigawatts. Furthermore, The Enel Group operates in the country’s distribution sector through Enel Distribución Perú, which serves nearly 1.4 million customers in the Lima region.

“The construction of Enel’s first wind farm in Peru furthers our presence in the country and demonstrates our strong commitment to the Peruvian renewable energy market,” Antonio Cammisecra, head of Enel Green Power, said in prepared remarks. “We are fully dedicated to developing new projects that will contribute to the diversification of our footprint in the country. Our aim in Peru is to become the leading player in renewable energy, which we consider to be essential for a sustainable development at the local and national level.”