Stanwell already has 12.5 megawatts of wind power generation at Windy Hill on the Atherton Tableland in Queensland.

"We are also looking at quite a number of sites in South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland," Stanwell general manager marketing Dave Burbidge told Reuters.

"Our target for the company is 450 MW over the next five years."

Stanwell's major generation asset is a 1,400 MW coal-fired baseload power station near Rockhampton in central Queensland.

But it is one of a number of companies seeking to expand into wind-fired generation as wholesale electricity buyers must boost their renewable generation purchases.

The Federal Government ruled earlier this year that energy retailers must source about an extra two percent, 9,500 gigawatt hours, of electricity from renewable energy by 2010.

It is estimated the legislation requires about 3,000 MW of renewable generation.

Environmentalists and renewable generators have called for the target to be raised.

The Australian Wind Energy Association and environmental group Greenpeace are aiming for Australia's wind-fired power production to rise to 5,000 MW a year by 2010 from less than 100 MW currently.

CitiPower will pay a premium for the Toora wind generation which would be sold through its EcoPower programme, which is in addition to its legislated renewable requirement.

Under National Electricity Market rules, a generator of less than than 30 MW capacity does not have to bid into the spot market in competition against major coal and gas-fired plant to meet demand.