Wind farm SCADA retrofit case study

As you approach the West Cumbrian town of Workington on the A66, you can’t miss the striking view of Winscales Wind Farm. Built in 1999, Winscales was one of the UK’s earliest wind farms. 25 years later, the turbines are still going strong, creating energy from the plentiful and sometimes unforgiving west Cumbrian winds. However, keeping older sites like Winscales running year after year is not without challenges. Whether it’s maintaining access to spare parts, or ensuring maximum life of major components, the operators and asset managers need strategies in place.

One of the key challenges for older and post-warranty renewable energy sites, is the ability of owners and operators to monitor the sites both allowing for strong cyber security measures while also allowing easy access for control room teams and site technicians.

To tackle this challenge, the site operators Adamas were looking for a modern web-application SCADA solution that would be compatible with the control systems operating in the Vestas turbines and decided to use WindSync SCADA software. WindSync SCADA equipment was installed at the wind farm control room by Adamas technicians with remote support from Visualwind and since then Adamas control room teams and service technicians have been using WindSync for remote monitoring and fault clearance on the Vestas V47 and V52 turbines.

Rob Payne of Adamas said “The system provides us with invaluable 24/7 access to real-time monitoring, data creation, fault clearance, parameter configuration, performance, and downtime analysis. With instant access available to all key personnel including our wind farm owner, our operations control room and service teams, WindSync ensures we can always monitor our assets through the simple to use web-based platform. Many thanks to Peter and his team at Visualwind for providing a smooth install and bespoke training package.”

Peter Longbottom of Visualwind said, “It’s fantastic to see Winscales integrated into modern control room monitoring. We look forward to working with Adamas on this and future projects.”

Read more about WindSync or contact us to find out more.

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