Catapult giant aids control test

Ocean Array Systems (OAS) is to use the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s 7MW offshore wind demonstration turbine at Levenmouth to help validate software designed to improve turbine control strategies.

OAS said its TurbineGrid simulation software aims to enable wind farm owners and operators to better predict how turbines respond to atmospheric turbulence, stability and wake interaction at both individual and farm level.

Improving turbine control could see as much as a 2.4% reduction in the levelised cost of energy of offshore wind, it added.

The project with ORE Catapult – Simulation to enable Asset Life Extension of wind turbines – is funded by Innovate UK and will use production and load sensor data from the demo turbine combined with wind conditions measured through a met mast and Lidar located at the site.

“These will then be compared with the numerical model of the wind conditions and turbine response of the TurbineGrid software to validate the tool,” OAS said. 

OAS commercial director Nicola Pearson said: “Wake breakdown and interaction are modelled and these innovations enable a more accurate prediction of blade loading and lifetimes.

“These tools will enable new control strategies to manage turbine interaction, yield and fatigue loading effects.”

Image: the Levenmouth turbine (ORE Catapult)