Flicq and Robert Gordon University Cooperate on Offshore Wind Turbine Monitoring Data

Flicq UK Ltd and Robert Gordon University (RGU) announced today that they are cooperating on analysing sensor data from wind turbines. The ultimate objective is to reduce turbine downtime by improving the prediction of failures.

Offshore wind generation is becoming a very important component of electricity supply in the North Sea area. However, with offshore wind turbines often located 25 km offshore, they are difficult to inspect and maintain. Wind farm operators rely on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems to flag if a turbine is in an unhealthy condition. In the event of such an alarm a wind turbine will be shut down until a maintenance crew has inspected (and if necessary fixed) the reported problem. False alarms are very costly due to lost electricity generation and the cost of sending a maintenance crew to the wind turbine.

As part of their cooperation, Robert Gordon University and Flicq will analyse SCADA data in order to investigate the relationship between sensor data and wind turbine alarms. The SCADA data comes from the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s Levenmouth Demonstration Turbine (LDT) in Fife. Unlike most offshore turbines which have low bandwidth communication links, limiting the amount of data that can be transmitted onshore, the LDT is just 50 metres offshore and ORE provides access to a complete SCADA dataset. Gaining insights into the SCADA data is a first step in improving prediction of turbine failures and reducing downtime. This work is funded by the Scottish Funding Council.

“With heavy investment in offshore wind, it is important that the condition of wind turbines is accurately monitored to minimise downtime”, said Roddy Urquhart, Managing Director, Flicq UK Ltd. He added, “We are very happy to have a local data science cooperation in Aberdeen with experts in RGU’s Computational Intelligence Research Group.”

Dr Andrei Petrovski, Reader in Computational Systems at RGU, said “The School of Computing Science and Digital Media at RGU, which houses the Computational Intelligence Research Group, has been successfully working with industry for decades, establishing a strong reputation for helping businesses to innovatively overcome challenges and enhance operational efficiency. Our collaboration with Flicq UK Ltd will see us apply powerful computational approaches to improve wind turbine condition monitoring, tackling a significant challenge to the renewable energy industry.”

Flicq offers a range of wireless sensors including vibration, acoustic, ultrasonic and current/power. Flicq supports a choice of connectivity including Bluetooth LE, Wi-Fi, 3G/4G cellular and LoRaWAN.