WindESCo has announced the successful installation of its innovative Swarm technology across Longroad Energy’s Milford I & II wind plants in Utah, US, featuring a combined capacity of 306MW.
The work marks the wind industry’s first full-scale implementation of commercial wake steering and collective control technology. Early results reveal that the sites will benefit from significant energy production increases via collective control and advanced analytics.
Wakes at the wind farms create substantial turbulence and curtailment, reducing plant output by up to 20% according to a study published in Wind Energy Science.
Swarm, the industry’s first commercial solution for collective control of wind turbines, works by combining advanced analytics, model-in-the-loop control, and Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) to accomplish +3% increase in annual energy production (AEP) via wake steering and additional collective control applications developed by WindESCo. In addition to improving AEP through wake steering, Swarm reduces curtailment, optimizes low wind resource, and protects against extreme conditions, increasing asset life.
The Milford I and II Swarm installation was completed in December 2022 on 165 turbines, consisting of a mix of GE 1.5MW and Clipper 2.5MW units. With both sites operational for over a decade, WindESCo and Longroad’s collaboration supported the plants’ repowering, which also included rotor, blade, and controller upgrades for many turbines.
“While many research teams have modelled and written about the potential for improving wind plant performance through wake steering, never before has a large-scale commercial test of such technology been completed,” said WindESCo Founder and CEO Mo Dua.
“The commissioning of Swarm at Milford demonstrates that large-scale wake steering is possible as a retrofit solution for older assets, while also proving feasibility for the technology to support the expanding global fleet of wind turbines offshore.”
The company plans to release additional results from the Milford project this summer and is working to install Swarm in Indonesia, with additional sites offshore in the UK and Europe expected to be announced later this year.