Withassets installed far from shore in harsh conditions, offshore wind turbine manufacturers and project operators areturning to new digital tools to optimize performance, boost power productionand minimize downtime. One such tool is the use of digital copies, or twins, of physical turbines to assist with real-time monitoring of offshore wind projects.

The California Energy Commissions Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC), a ratepayer-funded energy innovation research and development program, recently awarded a $2 million grant toNorwegian engineering company Aker Solutions and Cognite, an Oslo-based industrial software company, to develop a digital twin model of the physical floating offshore wind turbines that could be deployed along Californias coastline by the mid-2020s.

Aker Solutions hasworked on digital twinsfor many industries power, utilities, shipping, oil and gas, and manufacturing but the new research project is its first for floating offshore wind turbines, Hans Petter vrevik, head of offshore wind projects and business development for the U.S., said in an interview.

The $2 million grant was awarded under an EPIC program intended to advance next-generation wind energy technologies and accelerate the maturation of the Golden States promising but embryonicoffshore wind market.

Aker Solutions and Cognites NextWind Real Time Condition Monitoring platform will take representational data from typical equipment that would be used in a floating offshore wind farm to develop a blueprint for a real-world project. The aim is to generate data and insights that enableimprovements in power production, operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, and environmental performance throughout the operational life of a project.

The real-world project cited as a potential case study by vrevik is the 100- to 150-megawatt floating offshore wind farm proposed by the Redwood Coast Energy Authority and a consortium of private companies, including Aker Solutions, for waters located more than 20 miles off the coast of the city of Eureka in Northern California.

Shashi Barla, principal analyst for the global wind supply chain and technology at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, noted that one of the consortium partnersfor the Redwood Coast Offshore Wind project is EDP Renewables one of the world's largest wind asset owners/developers. That "implies some serious interest in the technology," Barla said.

GE Renewable Energy claims to have developed the first digital wind farm in 2015 and is adding digital twin functionality to the companys Predix software platform. GE is building an app using digital twin technology that will allow engineers to make better decisions about when to run its offshore turbines at full power out at sea.

Prior to construction, digital twins allowplanners to do modeling to analyze and predict O&M costs for a project. But, according to vrevik, the real value outtake of this, in terms of reduced O&M costs, will come when you actually put your projects in the water, and you basically start to collect the data and process it.

At that point, operators will be able to use the digital twin to compare the idealized, engineered condition of the equipment to the actual condition of the real-world project. Real-time monitoring through sensors embedded in the equipment should help wind farm owners avoid costlyunplanned maintenance or repairs.

"You can constantly adjust and optimize how you operate and how you maintain the asset,"vrevik told GTM.

Work on the EPIC-backed digital twin research project is expected to begin in May or June this year, with completion set for early 2023.

vrevik saidAker Solutions and its partners see the Redwood Coast Offshore Wind Project as an ideal first offshore wind project for California, both in terms of size and the fact that it's in an area where there [are few]conflicts and there's a strong wish to see it happen from the local community.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management may hold an auction for offshore wind lease areas in California by the end of 2020.

While not a new concept, digital twins are playing a growing role in the wind industry,WoodMac's Barla said.

Leading turbine [manufacturers]already have digital twins of their installed fleet that will help optimize the turbine performance and lower the O&M costs over the life of the asset, predominantly on the predictive maintenance of the components, he wrote in an email.

The digital models help in determining the impact on the physical turbines. The virtual sensors enable monitoring of the health of the turbines like temperature check, vibrationsand any aberration in parameters compared to normal performance."

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Using Digital Twins to Boost Production, Cut Costs at Floating Offshore Wind Farms - Greentech Media News