Wind sensor in the cold!

A VENTUS X ultrasonic wind sensor, from the OTT Hydromet Group, has been deployed by researchers at the Summit Station on the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Arctic, 10,000 feet above sea level, as part of a project investigating the role of aerosols in cloud formation. With integrated heaters and no moving parts, the wind sensor does not require recalibration – a vital feature of equipment in one of the most remote locations on Earth.

Aerosols are important in cloud formation because they act as condensation nuclei, providing seeding sites for water vapour condensation, and as ice nucleating particles which modulate the formation of ice in clouds.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is of critical importance to human society because of its role in global sea-level rise, and is of particular concern because it is melting at an increasing rate. An understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions is therefore extremely important; especially where clouds are comprised of both ice and supercooled liquid water, because this represents a major source of uncertainty in weather and climate models. Scientists from the University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment, and the (British) National Centre for Atmospheric Science are therefore seeking to reduce this uncertainty with the use of advanced remote sensing technology, such as radar and lidar, in combination with satellite observations and a suite of other ground-based sensors (such as the VENTUS) and state-of-the-art numerical weather and climate models.

The project is seeking to determine the extent to which different aerosol properties cause significant changes in clouds, and to quantify the role aerosols may have on the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. In addition, this work is evaluating regional and global numerical weather and climate model performance against the project’s observations; to identify any deficiencies that lead to biases in cloud occurrence, cloud thickness, and phase partitioning.

#Environment @OTTHydromet @AtmosScience @_Enviro_News

Wind by wireless!

A new Wireless Wind Speed System from Mantracourt is set to become an industry leader within the crane industry. The new out of the box solution, comprising the wireless wind speed display (T24-DWS) and transmitter module (T24-WSSp), is pre-calibrated, making it simple and easy to use. It is a perfect solution for tower cranes, mobile cranes and crawler cranes, effectively monitoring wind speeds, transmitting the data to a display and fully conforming to the Radio Equipment Directive (RED).

Kelly Voysey, Sales & Marketing Manager at Mantracourt explained: "This new piece of kit has been developed in direct response to demand for a wireless wind speed solution which complies to the Radio Equipment Directive”.

The system, with its surface mounting display module for exclusive use with the wireless wind speed transmitter module, provides high accuracy measurement, offers a quick and effective solution for monitoring wind speeds in a variety of lifting and handling applications and boasts exceptional battery life.

Kelly continued: "We've worked hard to develop a system that runs uninterrupted and reliably for as long as possible. The new kit can provide battery life (using 2 standard alkaline D Cells) in excess of 12 months, when constantly on ".

The in-cab display shows a rolling average wind speed which is updated at the transmission rate of the wind speed sensor (which is once per second out of the box). Meanwhile, the display, which has an optional backlight, can be toggled between m/s and mph. Measuring wind speeds from 5mph to 125mph.

Kelly added: "Another feature which will undoubtedly prove useful to our customers is the internal buzzer and relay which can be configured to different trigger points to control external equipment. For example when wind speeds rise above an assigned limit an alarm can be configured to sound a buzzer and trigger a beacon to alert users”.

The T24-WSSp is designed for mounting to moving booms, with a pivot design to ensure the sensor always remains upright. It uses a low power mode between transmissions to maximise battery life in the field, whilst offering class leading wireless coverage range of up to 800 metres (2,600ft). The display module is externally powered and comes complete with 3m cable and ball jointed cab mount/ wall mount. Its high quality 3-cup rotor anemometer provides measurements in m/s and mph and, forming part of the T24 modular telemetry system, the data transmitted by the T24-WSSp can be received by multiple T24 displays, as well analogue outputs, relay modules and computer interfaces.

She concluded: "We've aimed to tick all the boxes for our customers with this new sensor and display. It's a simple, easy and ready to use solution, though additional configuration is available if that's what a customer requires, with the use of a T24 base station. An additional visualisation tool is also offered via our free, intuitive logging and mapping software"

@mantracourt  #PAuto 

Remote wind turbine monitoring in China

Guohua wind turbines choose for SKF remote monitoring

When the fourth biggest wind farm operator in China increases his installed capacity by 50% within one year, that indicates a company that knows its business. And one of the business aspects that all wind farm operators need to take care of is “turbine reliability” – keeping the turbines turning as much as possible and keeping maintenance activities down to a minimum. Reduced or controlled maintenance is always a valuable contribution to bottom line profitability, but when you’ve got 2000 MW of installed capacity, the target by end 2010 for Guohua Energy Investment Company, based in Beijing (CN), then you are talking about huge amounts of money.

That is why Mr. Zhou Weihua, Deputy General Manager of the Production Department, took a decision in 2008 to evaluate his maintenance strategy and the technology to be applied within that strategy. A critical decision was to look for the most reliable and experienced way to determine the health of his turbines in the fastest and most effective way.

Investigating on-line monitoring
With a few different turbine designs and sizes out in the field he needed the best possible way to get reliable and regular information about the general condition of selected turbines of these designs and types. At the same time he wanted identify any typical negative trends that might occur in the various, but differing, field operating conditions that the turbines would be deployed to. Not being satisfied with his previous assessment process of only using temperature readings of gearbox oil and generator bearing housings, he wanted to investigate on-line monitoring, where vibration signals from critical components are collected 24 hours a day and analysed to determine exactly if and where problems are developing, and how severe any problems were. This type of monitoring would also provide valuable knowledge that could allow critical maintenance to be planned and avoid unexpected and very costly breakdowns. He knew that this type of condition monitoring is widely used in USA, Europe, Australia etc.

Visiting Germany for first hand experience
His first step was to make a deep investigation of what technology was available and the quality and knowledge of the suppliers. These investigations covered all the key suppliers of such technology but contacts with other wind farm operators in China quickly brought him to consider SKF and their turbine monitoring system for further discussions. “Of course I knew of SKF” says Mr Zhou, “they are the number one bearing specialist in the world with expert knowledge in many industries over many years in many countries, also here in China. And I had heard of the SKF WindCon turbine monitoring system but had never used it before.

After direct contact with SKF, I heard that they had recently been successful with remote on-line monitoring, where data from the monitored turbine in the wind farm were transmitted by Internet to their specialists for analysis.


In order to get first hand experience of their remote on-line capability I visited their Intelligence Centre Wind (ICW), their major wind turbine diagnostic centre in Hamburg, Germany”.

At the time of Mr Zhou’s visit the SKF ICW in Hamburg was receiving and processing data from more than 600 turbines from across Europe and also from USA.

“In Hamburg I saw examples of almost all the capabilities of a SKF WinCon system, because there were so many systems deployed in so many wind farms. The level of detail that the system could give was clearly demonstrated, and the explanations by the people making the analysis clearly indicated that they knew all about wind turbines and the critical machinery. The Hamburg visit gave me the confidence to set up a field trial on some turbines in Guohua wind farms in 2009”.

Field trials at 3 wind farms
The field trial involved 11 SKF WindCon systems to be deployed across 3 wind farms; one in Jiangsu province, one in Shadong province and one in Inner Mongolia. Around the time SKF were installing their systems in the Guohua turbines SKF had opened a Remote Condition Monitoring Centre in Shanghai. Having SKF experts so close was an added benefit to Mr. Zhou and he was anxious to get the systems operating and see what the results would be. The data was collected on a local server at each wind farm and transmitted to an SKF server in Shanghai for analysis. Any immediate emergency situation would be reported at once but an ‘emergency situation’ was not detected at start up of the monitoring, and a report was issued once per month to the wind farm site managers and Mr Zhou. The reports contained the detailed vibration spectra for the key components being monitored, together with a brief statement that summarised the analysis of the data in terms of the condition of the component. But there was also a “report grid” that indicated the components being monitored and each one had one of 3 colours; green, yellow or red to give immediate indication of the condition, with green being OK, yellow being a slight to major deviation from the “acceptable levels or trends”, and red being something requiring immediate attention.

The first results were good, because Mr Zhou could “see” for the first time what was really happening with his critical machinery. The SKF WindCon systems delivered the vibration spectra, similar to those he saw in Hamburg, and the SKF experts in Shanghai interpreted the data in terms of the condition of the bearings, potential misalignment, gear damage etc.

During the six months to January 2010, the SKF WindCons provided good information on the turbines allowing Mr. Zhou to determine if and what maintenance would be required. In that period one of the installed SKF WindCons identified a severely damaged generator gearbox bearing at the Inner Mongolia wind farm.

Success and further deployment of SKF WindCon
“The SKF WindCons did their job," said Mr. Zhou, "they kept me informed and the early identification of the severity of the damaged bearing in Inner Mongolia was enough to allow us to plan for replacement at minimum cost and disturbance to the planned electricity supply from the turbine”.

Since the tests Guohua have installed another 58 SKF WindCons and a further 280 have been ordered for new turbines going into service in 2010.

This is the start of a mass application of remote monitoring and Mr. Zhou says “we have some knowledge regarding vibration analysis within our own maintenance teams, but I intend to build up more knowledge within the Guohua organization and set up our own remote monitoring centre in Beijing for our turbines. A lot of this knowledge and assistance will come from SKF as they provide us with their remote diagnostic monitoring during the coming years”.

Investment in renewable energy

There have been two releases from ABB on investments in various countries on wind and wave energy resources.

ABB invests in wind technology company

ABB has made a strategic investment in Pentalum Technologies, an Israel-based company developing advanced wind sensing technology for control and optimisation of wind turbines and wind farms.

Pentalum is developing an innovative LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology that remotely senses the wind vector in front of wind turbines in order to optimally align them to incoming wind flow. Pentalum’s system is also applicable to wind forecasting and site assessment, and is designed to significantly increase wind farm efficiency at a lower cost per site than existing measurement technologies.

The investment was made through ABB Technology Ventures, ABB’s venture capital arm, which invests in early and growth stage companies with technologies of strategic importance to the industry segments the company serves. Other participants in funding for Pentalum included Cedar Fund, which led the round; and Evergreen Venture Partners, both from Israel; and Draper Fischer Jurvetson from the US.

"Cost and complexity issues are hampering the widespread adoption of optimization systems for wind power,” said Girish Nadkarni, head of ABB Technology Ventures. "We have invested in Pentalum because we believe their technical approach will significantly improve profitability for developers and operators of this important renewable energy source.”

“Given ABB’s broad expertise and strong position with wind turbine manufacturers and wind farm developers and operators, they are a very strong partner for Pentalum,” said Sagie Tsadka, President and CEO of Pentalum. “Our wind sensing technology can significantly improve the performance of wind turbines and wind farms, and ABB can be instrumental in helping us deliver this benefit to the marketplace through their extensive customer base.”

ABB provides a wide range of products, integrated solutions and expertise that enable the efficient generation of wind power and its smooth integration into the grid. Customers include turbine manufacturers, engineering contractors, independent power producers and utilities.

ABB invests in renewable energy company
Technology generates clean electricity from nearshore wave energy

ABB has invested about $13 million in Aquamarine Power, a Scottish company that has developed technology to convert energy captured from waves near shore into clean, usable electricity.

ABB Technology Ventures, the company's venture capital arm, made the investment in a funding round that also included a $4.8 million investment from SSE Venture Capital, the venture capital unit of Scottish and Southern Energy and other investors.

The investment gives ABB access to another renewable energy technology, and provides an entry into the emerging marine energy market, where ABB has considerable pull-through sales potential for its power systems, power electronics and medium-voltage drives.

"Wave energy is primed to become an important part of the world's renewable energy portfolio,” said Brice Koch, head of ABB Marketing and Customer Solutions, which oversees the company’s renewable energy initiatives among other activities. "This investment reflects our belief in its technical viability, and our confidence in Aquamarine’s technology and its management team.”

Aquamarine’s Oyster wave power device consists of a hinged mechanical flap connected to the nearshore seabed that pipes high-pressure water to an onshore turbine for power generation. The system is easier to install and maintain than other wave power generation systems, and has won a number of renewable energy innovation awards.

In November 2009, the first full-scale demonstrator Oyster began producing power at the European Marine Energy Center based in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. Once commercialized, Oyster wave power devices could be deployed in farms rated at 100 megawatts or more.

“This strategic investment gives ABB an early-mover advantage in our wave energy technology, while we gain access to ABB’s technical, research and engineering expertise and global supply chain network,” said Aquamarine Power CEO, Martin McAdam.

ABB Technology Ventures invests in strategically interesting early and growth stage companies. To date, investment areas include smart grid communications, cyber security for utilities, data center power optimization and wind farm efficiency.

 

Monitoring wind power

PC VUE monitors US wind farms

Iberdrola Renewables, the second-largest energy provider in North America has chosen PC VUE SCADA system to monitor it’s US wind farms, producing 3,600 megawatts of wind power over 35 independent power plants. Each of the 2479 wind turbine supplies about 300 to 350 data points, which equates to approximately 700,000 to 850,000 I/O data points on nearly two dozen servers.

The latest operation for Iberdrola Renewables is its National Control Center. In a room that looks a like NASA Mission Control, systems analysts oversee every turbine at every wind farm throughout the
US. They monitor the performance and efficiency of every turbine, and they keep an eye on approaching storms to warn technicians of the danger in the field.

A vital element of this operation is the SCADA system. Each wind turbine has a control box containing a PLC, power converter, control boards and an I/O device at the top. Sensors for wind speed, wind direction, shaft rotation speed and numerous other factors collect and transfer data to the PLC. By detecting the wind’s direction, the control system can use a motorized yaw gear to turn the entire wind turbine in the proper direction for maximum power generation. All wind turbines are connected to a LAN, with each wind tower’s control box using Ethernet to link to the base of the tower where there is a fiber-based, redundant ring LAN connection. The LAN is connected to a remote control station running a control system that manages and collects data, adjusts turbine settings and provides intelligent alarm, troubleshooting and reporting capabilities via a central data center and control facility located in Portland, Ore. This central control station is equipped with a PcVue SCADA system that
acts as a nerve center for the wind farms. It connects the individual turbines, the substations,
the meteorological stations the bird/bat aviation radar and other wildlife preservation surveillance systems to this central control room. It provides visibility for the operator to supervise the behavior of all the wind farms as a whole. By keeping a record of the activity on a time interval basis, PC VUE allows the operator to determine what adjustments and corrective action, if any, need to be taken.

The organisation uses multiple turbine types and each turbine supplier provides their own control/
HMI system. The major advantages of using PcVue as the main SCADA system is that it is not tied to any one PLC vendor so that it operates irrespectively of turbine type. This was of particular importance to Iberdrola who have wind farm operators using multiple turbines and various PLCs.

During the implementation process, Iberdrola’s team liked how PcVue was easy to configure. Its ability to iconize animated mimics and use pop-up windows reduced the risk of overlaying crucial information helped simplify the view for Iberdrola’s team. Also, the creation of templates for contents and behavior, associated with each mimic and GUI (graphical user interface) animation, ensure consistency of the window display.
They are using OPC (and others) as the communications protocol to pull data from the various PLCs. Iberdrola uses PcVue’s OPC Data Access Client and OPC DA XML Client for exchange of real time data with communication servers, and OPC DA Server to facilitate data exchange with 3rd party applications. All of the data acquisition that occurs is routed back to the National Control Center.

“PcVue proved reliable, scalable and easy to configure. CORE had been kept up and running quite successfully. PcVue provides a single user view that allows an easy visual display and overall management of the myriad systems in place from PLC, HMI and the control system equipped on the turbines,” said Harm Toren, head of operations services - wind, Iberdrola Renewables. “As we monitor aviation migration and weather in addition to controlling and managing our turbines, we needed a system that would provide a simple, easy to read GUI so that we can react at a moment’s notice”. Furthermore, PcVue software had already proven to be user-friendly and highly functional in the Spanish operations.

Wind farm profitibility improvement

Increasing wind farm profitability by reducing gearbox maintenance costs with condition-based maintenance

As much as 25%-30% of wind farm operating and maintenance costs are associated with gearbox maintenance alone. Reducing these costs can help wind farms stay more profitable, efficient, and competitive, bringing clean energy wind farms to the forefront. GE Energy's Condition-Based Maintenance Solution, including GE Energy's Bently Nevada™ ADAPT™.wind Software, reduces gearbox maintenance costs and provides wind farms with a greater competitive edge in the energy market.

A Bently Nevada integrated condition monitoring system enables operators to understand the gearbox condition remotely. Dependable knowledge of the gearbox condition enables continued operation and revenue generation when a defect is not significant, while mitigating the risk of run to failure, an unplanned outage, or catastrophic event.

Proactive condition monitoring across the fleet also helps operators plan efficiently for and coordinate maintenance outages. Consolidating maintenance into one outage, and scheduling one crane, can save hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per year in lost revenue, depending on the size of the wind farm.

GE Energy's patented Planetary Cumulative Impulse Detection algorithm is a set of measurements that detect and trend the passage of particulates through the planetary stage of a wind turbine gearbox. This provides greater insight into gearbox condition and helps pinpoint problem areas. GE Energy's Dynamic Energy Index (DEI) algorithm is specifically designed for variable speed machines. DEI spreads the variation over five bands of operation for more accurate spectral energy calculations and earlier fault detection.

GE Energy's Wind Turbine Condition Monitoring Solution is part of ADAPT™.wind, the standard condition monitoring solution on GE's wind turbine units that can be readily deployed on most manufacturers' ~1.5 MW-class turbines. Turbine owners can expect to see cost savings through several venues including reducing unplanned crane services and optimizing maintenance. The incredible value and benefit in implementing this solution has been acknowledged as many companies are adopting condition-based maintenance (CBM) strategies to decrease down time, reduce cost, and improve reliability. This solution already has over 700 units in the order and installation process.

Now with maximum power point tracking

New firmware adds MPPT functionality to digital power analyser - Real-time dynamic measurements for solar and wind energy applications -

New firmware (Version 4.12) has been introduced for the Yokogawa WT3000 digital power analyser that enables the instrument to be used to carry out real-time dynamic measurements on maximum power point tracking (MPPT): a system used to optimise the power performance of solar or wind energy inverter systems under changing conditions.

The new firmware is of particular significance in situations where the maximum power point is subject to rapidly changing environmental conditions, such as solar cells on orbiting satellites or wind turbines under conditions of variable velocity and direction of wind.

The dynamic and nonlinear nature of such systems means that conventional methods of measuring average power and peak power do not produce a meaningful result: instead, it is the instantaneous peak power that is significant, requiring a high performance digital power analyser to show how efficiently the inverter system is responding to the changing conditions.

The new firmware allows a number of user-defined parameters such as peak power, instantaneous power and power factor to be calculated from acquired measurements and made available in real time for storage and display purposes.

The new firmware for supporting the use of the Yokogawa WT3000 as an MPPT efficiency tester is available as a free download.

Wind turbine monitoring

Bently Nevada™ ADAPT™.wind condition-based monitoring decreases downtime, reduces cost, and improves reliability

With a massive fleet of wind turbines coming off warranty and an anticipated installed-base growth of 475% over the next 5 years, companies are adopting condition-based maintenance (CBM) strategies to decrease down time, reduce cost, and improve reliability. CBM in wind turbines, like in combustion and steam turbines and generators, is the process of monitoring the condition of machinery, scheduling maintenance, and avoiding failures. This solution already has over 700 units in the order and installation process.

Wind farms are exposed to some unique challenges. Change of wind speeds, load conditions, and environmental conditions all contribute to the complexity of operating wind turbines. In addition, wind farms are spread out over acres or even across miles, and the gearboxes are located several hundred feet into the air. This makes it difficult for a technician to predict or diagnose an issue with the turbine. Advanced condition monitoring techniques and experience are critical to reliably monitor the wind asset.

One integrated condition-based monitoring system, Bently Nevada™ Advanced Distributed Architecture Platform Technology (ADAPT™.wind) from GE, enables operators to understand the condition of the asset without having to physically examine the machinery. By utilizing the intelligence of the system, operators can understand the severity of the defect, make corrections, and continue to generate revenue if the defect is insignificant.

ADAPT.wind CBM also allows operators to plan for maintenance, coordinate outages for closely clustered units, and proactively monitor units with anomalies, instead of running to failure or tripping the unit on an anomaly. Being able to understand the condition and health of the wind farm’s machinery, an operator can consolidate maintenance for one time and schedule one crane, realizing hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings.

The ADAPT.wind software is the standard condition monitoring solution on GE’s wind turbine units and can be readily deployed on most manufacturers’ equipment.

Agreement for technologies & services!

Emerson Process Management has entered into a 5-year Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with Shell to serve as a Main Automation Contractor (MAC) on future capital projects globally.

Under the Agreement, Emerson will provide project and support services for Main Automation Systems, including Distributed Control Systems (DCS) and Safety Instrumented Systems. The contract also provides for ongoing maintenance of existing systems, plus the supply of new systems for Brownfield and Greenfield facilities. While Shell has utilised a MAC strategy in its Downstream businesses for years, the Company is expanding the concept to make it a centre-point of an enterprise-wide automation strategy.

“This Global Framework Agreement marks a completely new approach within Shell,” said Nick Curley, upstream automation portfolio manager for Shell. “It is a long-term, competitive, collaborative, performance-based relationship that will facilitate the delivery of considerable value to both parties. We will be looking to emulate this approach in many other key global categories in the future.”

“This new agreement will put Emerson in a position to substantially broaden its Main Automation Contractor footprint within Shell,” said Ronaldo Marques, general manager, equipment, for Shell’s Enterprise Categories & Suppliers division. “For the first time in history, Emerson will have full and open access to all Shell business units - Upstream, Downstream, Wind, Power and Biofuels - plus affiliated Joint Ventures.”

"We have enjoyed a solid relationship with Shell for decades," said Steven A. Sonnenberg, president of Emerson Process Management. "This Global Framework Agreement symbolises the shared belief our two companies have that early engagement, clear objectives and collaborative work practices result in more predictable success for projects and operations. We are thrilled to be selected by Shell for the role of Main Automation Contractor."