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Yaw by Consensus: a Swarm Application
WindESCo Swarm™ is the world’s first commercially available, patented, solution for autonomous, cooperative control of wind assets. Taking cues...
1 min read
WindESCo Swarm™ is the world’s first commercially available, patented, solution for autonomous, cooperative control of wind assets. The first implementation is taking place on 165 turbines at Longroad Energy's Milford wind farm.
Taking cues from the intuitive decision-making of birds in flight, WindESCo Swarm is set to unlock millions of dollars for wind asset owners. With Swarm, turbines are enabled to cooperatively adjust positioning to boost production for the entire farm – rather than single machines – by 3-5% annually. For a typical 1GW wind plant, this would translate to an increase of $20 million (€17 million) over a five year period.
Wake Steering Alone Isn't Enough
WindESCo Swarm offers multiple value propositions. We have discussed Yaw by Consensus and Wake Steering. It's been well documented that wake steering typically improves AEP about 1%. In order to reach the 3-5% AEP improvement mark, employing wake steering alone is not enough. Alternatively, swarming utilizes multiple applications that allow turbines to work together and optimize energy production for the entire site.
Below, you will learn about additional applications developed by the WindESCo team to achieve swarming at wind plants.
Additional AEP Improvement Applications
WindESCo Swarm applications provide further automated benefits to a wind plant through yaw control improvements. OEMs have optimized their yaw controllers for a specific set of general site conditions. However, decisions about when to yaw are not always optimum for the site due to differences from the modeled site conditions. Yaw control improvements could dynamically adjust the nacelle position of the turbine to maximize energy capture and minimize the wear and tear on the yaw drive components. Additionally, WindESCo's applications can predict wind direction from nearby turbines to help capture more energy or reduce extreme loading on other turbines in the plant.
While these gains are significant, they do not reach the level that the market is striving for when used alone. When paired with other Swarm Applications, however, the WindESCo Swarm system can deliver a 3-5% improvement in site-wide AEP without negatively impacting the lifetime of assets.
Monitoring and Updates over a secured network
Swarm is not a static upgrade for your wind plant. Instead, Swarm will improve over time through remote monitoring and offline data analytics. WindESCo is continuously updating the Swarm system, applying the latest state-of-the-art analytics and algorithms to achieve even better performance on our customers’ wind plants. As a Swarm customer, your wind plant will benefit from these improvements, which will be rolled out regularly throughout the life of the contract.
To learn more, visit the Swarm web page or contact us.
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