Better technology is allowing some wind
farm operators to get more out of their existing wind farms by
completely repowering the farm - replacing old technology with new - or
by conducting performance upgrades on their turbines.
There is an old piece of wisdom that states: "If it ain't broke,
don't fix it." But some wind farm operators, especially in Germany and
North America, are finding that advice difficult to heed. That's because
technology improvements in turbines coupled with software analytics are
revealing that signing up for a performance upgrade could allow them to
squeeze even more wind energy - and money - out of existing wind farms.
Replacing Old Technology with New
According to the recently released Global Wind Report by the Global
Wind Energy Council (GWEC), "Repowering has become a billion euro
market." The report shows that in Germany 544 wind turbines with a
combined capacity of 264 MW were taken offline in 2014 and replaced by
new turbines with a capacity of 1000 MW.
The Vestas V100-1.8 MW turbines at Macho Springs Wind Farm in New Mexico, USA. Credit: Vestas.
While repowering "has not become a very substantial market yet
anywhere besides Germany, the potential is huge," said Steve Sawyer,
GWEC's president and CEO. "Especially in places like California,
Denmark, Germany, even in India where a lot of the best wind sites are
now occupied by, in some cases, comically ancient machines that look
like they belong in a museum," he said. Sawyer predicts there will be
much more action in the re-powering market in the coming years.
Performance Upgrades
It isn't only old technology that is being upgraded, however,
sometimes turbines that have been in the field for just four or five
years are candidates for an upgrade. Navigant Consulting's Jesse Broehl is one of the authors of the
recently released World Wind Energy Market Update 2015 published by BTM
Navigant. He explained that wind performance upgrades are a recent
development where major turbine vendors such as Vestas, Siemens, and GE
(the number 1, 2 and 3 suppliers in 2014, respectively) among others
"are looking for every opportunity that they can to diversify their
revenue stream and increase their income beyond just turbine sales," he
said. Broehl explained that performance upgrades are taking place on
relatively young turbines. He pointed to a deal in which EPD purchased
GE's PowerUp package for 402 turbines spread out over 5 different wind
farms. "Maybe those [turbines] are 4 or 5 years old. Probably in that
range, maybe even newer," he said.
Ken Siddall, Director of Service Technology Americas at Siemens said
that his company offers its modifications and upgrades packages on
turbines that are as little as two years old. He explained that upgrades
span the entire power curve. "In low-wind situations, we've got a
reactive power offering. In the ramp of the power curve, as the wind
speeds are coming up, we offer a power-curve upgrade kit, at the top, at
full winds, we can offer a power boost to customers with certain
turbine models," he said. Siemens also keeps customers informed about
available upgrades to its existing fleet of turbines. "Every year or so
Siemens launches new turbines with new upgrades or enhancements for
improved power performances and as much as we can we try to bring those
back into the existing fleet that's already out there," he explained.
Development of the annual installed and cumulative capacity (MW) of land-based wind energy in Germany including repowering and dismantling as of December 2014. Source: Platts Power Vision 2015. Credit: GWEC's Global Wind Report.
Wille Mildebrath, Product Manager at Vestas likened power performance
upgrades to customization on a car. "With traditional maintenance, [you
would, for example] change the gear oil," he said, adding, "you could
also do customization of the car and that's what we're doing with
performance upgrades." Mildebrath said that Vestas works with customers
to do anything it can to customize and optimize the turbines that are
already installed in the field.
Vestas performance upgrades take place after the company, in
partnership with the wind farm owner, has conducted "a site specific
analysis of that turbine to make sure we understand which upgrade or
upgrades would be best." Vestas offers a product suite called PowerPlus,
which encompasses power upgrades, extended cutouts, and aerodynamic
upgrades, said Mildebrath. "Power upgrades and extended cutouts are most
effective on high wind sites, and aerodynamic upgrades have the most
impact on low wind sites," he explained. To date, Vestas has sold
PowerPlus upgrades for more than 1,300 wind turbines - less than a year
after its public launch.
Data collection and analysis of turbines in the field is a big part
of both Vestas' and Siemens' offerings. It's that data analysis that
helps Siemens know when it is best for customers to entertain the idea
of implementing these modernizations and upgrades. The company is
constantly monitoring its entire fleet of turbines, according to Siddall
"gathering terabytes of data from all of our turbines onshore and
offshore."
Software plays a big role in upgrades. Improving the software that
controls the turbine "is probably the largest part of these performance
upgrade packages," said Navigant's Broel. He said that better algorithms
are able to improve "how the turbine operates and how it reacts to the
wind environment it is experiencing."
Attractive Costs
Since the money to perform an upgrade often comes from a wind farm
owner's O&M budget, rather than the capital expenditure budget, OEMs
have made doing them quite enticing. "Vestas PowerPlus is basically
free for customers to install," said Mildebrath. The customer pays for
the additional energy produced through a revenue share arrangement that
is worked out before the upgrade is installed.
DinoTails can be installed directly on the rotor blades of existing wind turbines. Credit: Siemens.
The offshore Wind Farm Horns Rev in Denmark uses Siemens turbines. Credit: Siemens.
GE has a similar arrangement, said Andy Holt, general manager for
global projects/services, GE Renewable Energy. "Our customers pay very
little upfront costs to implement our PowerUp services platform," he
explained adding that GE only profits if its customers do. Siddall said
that Siemens has a profit split arrangement where the company shares in
any increased revenue they might get from the upgrades.
How much more revenue are they going to get? That is dependent on a
lot of factors of course, including wind conditions, which upgrade was
specified, the site itself etc. However, Siddal, Holt and Mildebrath
said that a 5 percent increase in annual energy production (AEP) is a
good target. "Up to 5 percent AEP increase is not uncommon," said
Mildebrath.
One Note of Caution?
With no upfront costs, performance upgrades seem to offer what
everyone wants: the opportunity to gain more revenue from an existing
asset. However Navigant's Broehl offers one word of caution. "Basically
if you run your turbine harder then there might be a compromise on its
end-of-life use," he said. "You might be taking away years on the back
end in order to get that up-front increased performance." Broehl
cautioned that a tax-equity investor who plans to exit the deal after a
certain rate of return has been reached, say in 10 years, and a
different organization that will own the wind farm once that investor
has left, may have differing financial motivations. "It's a little bit
like how you might prefer to buy a used car from the retirees down the
street instead of from a college student," he said.
Nevertheless, most OEMs are committed to a long-term relationship
with their customers. Siddall talked of the 10- and 15-year O&M
contracts that Siemens makes with its customers. It seems that any risk
of prematurely wearing out a turbine could be mitigated with the right
kind of contract in place. "We take a long-term approach to this,"
Siddall said.
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/print/volume-18/issue-3/features/wind/making-the-most-energy-from-the-wind.html