In early 2013, the operators of the wind farm, BVT Windpark Sustrum/Renkenberge GmbH & Co. KG, had the iSpin System installed in three of its 16 Nordtank NTK 1500/64/80 turbines turbines on a trial basis.
Measurements showed yaw misalignments of between 9.3 and 12.5 degrees. After the yaw misalignments were corrected, the yield from the turbines was on average 3.7 percent higher.
The system was consequently extended to a further 16 turbines in the wind farm. When carrying out the measurements – between autumn 2014 and summer 2015 – ROMO Wind also found significant yaw misalignments of between 11.8 and 21.7 degrees.
The result after rectifying the yaw misalignment: an average of 7.7% increase in yield.
“Altogether, the measurements taken with iSpin provided us with an annual additional revenue of 275,000 euros, with the 19 turbines producing on average 182,500 kilowatt hours annually,” said Dr. Claus-Eric Gärtner, Managing Director of BVT Windpark Sustrum/Renkenberge.
Furthermore, according to Karl Fatrdla, Head of Sales at ROMO Wind, exchanging the wind vane on one of the turbines that had already been measured and rectified showed that even slight changes could once again lead to yaw misalignments. “This shows that continuous monitoring of wind data is essential to profit maximisation,” he said.
The iSpin technology was developed by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and tested continuously from 2004, until it came onto the market in 2013. iSpin is a wind measurement technology which is not dependent on a specific manufacturer, and is designed for permanent installation.
The iSpin system was incorporated into the international IEC 61400-12-2 standard for measuring the absolute power curve.
For additional information:
