UpWind Solutions Inc., an independent full service provider for the North American wind industry, and ROMO Wind, a Danish-Swiss wind turbine optimizer, have recently entered into a strategic relationship. With the partnership, ROMO Wind’s patented iSpin technology, which measures the wind in front of the rotor, will be available for customers in the USA, Canada and Mexico for the first time. UpWind’s O&M Excellence service offering will be enhanced by providing more solutions to owners to measure and improve project performance.
iSpin uses three ultrasonic sensors of this sort mounted on the spinner or hub. The sensors are installed in the front of the wind turbine, where the wind hits first.
The ROMO Wind iSpin system uses proven ultrasonic technology to measure wind where it first hits the turbine – directly at the spinner. In this way, it is able to measure parameters at the nacelle which until now have been difficult or impossible to measure accurately. Operators gather exact information on the wind conditions in front of the rotor including wind speed, yaw alignment, flow inclination, turbulence, rotor position and temperature. This lets them check whether their turbines are aligned for the best possible yield. At the same time, the data allows for optimized wind farm management and load reduction, which prolongs the total life of the turbines.
“ROMO Wind is a leader in their field and a perfect addition to our technology driven approach to Reliability Centered Maintenance,” says Peter Wells, CEO of UpWind Solutions. “We’re excited to be working with them and are looking forward to enhancing our O&M Excellence portfolio with their iSpin system.”
Jan Nikolaisen, Co-CEO at ROMO Wind, adds: “We are delighted to work with such a well-known and successful partner like UpWind to offer our innovative wind measurement technology to customers in America. Our experience shows that operators can increase the yield of their wind farm by two percent on average by correcting previously undiscovered yaw misalignments.”
The iSpin solution can be packaged with VG upgrades or O&M agreements, or delivered stand alone. It can provide AEP improvements as well as verify production improvements from other upgrades. The company says that of all the turbines on which the units have been installed have collectively improved their AEP by 2%.
See the video on how iSpin works here.
Filed Under: News, O&M
