Author: Peter Longbottom

There are several hundred Vestas wind turbines in the UK. Many of these have been installed in recent years and are operated and maintained by Vestas. However, a significant number of Vestas turbines in the UK are several years old and are operated and maintained by independent service providers (ISP). For such sites, operators may chose to use independent SCADA software.

Why use independent SCADA software?

There are several motivations for using independent SCADA software. For older sites, the original SCADA system may no longer be available – or it may be unsuitable for modern 24/7 monitoring. An independent SCADA system can bring the benefits of modern, software making it easy monitor sites while maintaining a high level of security.

How independent SCADA software works

Independent SCADA software works by acting as a bridge between the original wind turbine equipment and the outside world. Typically equipment is installed at the wind farm or wind turbine which connects to the wind turbine controllers and sends data to a remote server via a VPN connection.

Older Vestas turbine controllers do not store 10-minute data so it is necessary for the independent SCADA software to create this data. Wind turbine data is requested at frequent intervals and aggregated into 10-minute average data and event log data. Key monitoring data including wind speed, power, active alarms and turbine status are transmitted live for real-time monitoring.

In addition to creating 10-minute and event log data, the independent SCADA software can access the data that is stored on the turbine controllers including logs and monthly counters.

Does the turbine controller need to be replaced?

No. Independent SCADA software communicates with the existing Vestas controllers so there is no change to the control equipment or the behaviour of the turbines. At some sites, the operators choose to replace the turbine controllers with newer equipment such and where this is the case, the SCADA software is configured to communicate with the relevant controller type.

Can you clear faults remotely?

Yes you can use Independent SCADA software to remotely clear faults at Vestas wind turbines. It is also possible to provide remote access to the panel for some Vestas turbine for enhanced control functionality.

For more information about independent SCADA software, read about our WindSync software or contact us.

Asset management is a widely used term in the wind industry. At heart it is the acknowledgment that wind sites are not just equipment to be monitored and maintained, but complex financial assets that need managing well. But how does software fit in and how can it assist with the every day tasks of an asset management team?

Effective asset management involves routine administrative procedures, analysis of data and any number of technical and commercial decisions to be made throughout the life of the project. There will be trade-offs such as maximising output vs maximising component lifetime. There are people to manage, contracts to renew and regulations to meet.

Each of these areas of asset management can benefit from the use of software.

One asset management challenge that is common to all portfolios is the need to pay landowners a rent payment on a regular basis. Large portfolios may require hundreds of payments to be calculated and paid every quarter. Software can help by saving the payment dates of each land agreement and reminding asset managers when payments are due. But software can also help in calculating the amounts due. There is significant variation between rent agreements but many require some kind of royalty from the revenue generated by the site. Calculating the amount due is complex and may require combining invoiced revenue and accrued revenue. Software can handle this by storing information about the rent agreement, as well as capturing site meter data, PPA pricing information and PPA invoices.

Another example of how software can help is revenue validation. When PPA invoices are paid, the amount due is calculated according to the PPA contract and the data from the export meter. However, export meters can fail and cause gaps in data which can go unnoticed. It is also not uncommon for human error to lead to miscalculations in the payment amount. Software can help by calculating the expected energy and flagging any variation between expected and invoiced payments.

For FIT scale projects, site owners have to submit quarterly meter readings. This can be a particular challenge because the actual value on the face of the meter on the last day of the quarter is required. Software can help by incorporating cumulative meter readings from different types of meter and highlighting any issues with the meter data.

If you are interested to talk more about wind asset management software, do get in touch with us.

There are several wind asset management software products on the market, each with a slightly different focus. At Visualwind, our Renios solution brings together SCADA data, meter data and contract data to help portfolio owners and asset managers get the best from their assets.

Integrating legacy and post-warranty sites into modern control room monitoring can be a challenge for renewable energy operators. Visualwind’s WindSync SCADA software is meeting this challenge by providing remote connectivity for real-time remote monitoring and control.

How do renewable energy companies integrate older sites into their control room monitoring?

In many cases, integration is limited; legacy sites are absent from fleet monitoring systems, remote fault clearance is cumbersome if even possible and SCADA data is accessed manually.

One of Visualwind’s main focusses in recent years has been helping renewable energy companies setup their post-warranty and legacy turbines with modern web-application SCADA. For site owners and operators the benefits are clear – all sites in one system, immediate knowledge of issues, remote fault clearance and setpoint configuration, automated fault analysis and so on.

Connecting legacy communications protocols with modern data technologies

For Visualwind, the challenge has been to connect legacy communications protocols with modern data technologies on a wide range of turbines types and sites. In some cases, the OEM is no longer in existence and the turbines are left with no remote visibility. In other cases, the turbines are no longer maintained by the OEM and the original SCADA system is no longer supported. In all cases, a new approach is needed.

At Visualwind, our expectation is that the need for SCADA solutions for legacy and post-warranty turbines will remain strong as fleets age and the number of refurbished turbines increases. Our hope is that in all cases, this growing fleet of mature wind turbines will be no different to their newer counterparts when it comes to data connectivity.

Vestas SCADA

One of the most common turbine types to use WindSync SCADA is older Vestas turbines. Visualwind recently supplied WindSync to one the UK’s older wind farms. Setting up WindSync at the site gave the operators real-time monitoring, remote fault clearance and SCADA data analysis.

Refurbished turbines are another common use case for WindSync SCADA. Refurbished Vestas turbines have been a popular choice for FIT projects and for owners of refurbished Vestas turbines, WindSync SCADA gives them and their O&M teams everything they need.

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

Most of our wind farm monitoring work is real-time turbine monitoring using our WindSync SCADA software. But when it comes to monitoring the environmental impact of wind farms on surrounding homes, it is necessary to locate equipment outside of the wind farm and at or close to properties. One example is shadow flicker. Visualwind have been monitoring shadow flicker from one of England’s larger wind farms for several years using monitoring equipment located close to residential properties.

Shadow flicker is nothing new – flicker mitigation technology has been around for years. But issues persist and they are very difficult to investigate. Making use of advances in IoT technology Visualwind are helping eliminate flicker with at-property monitoring.

Shadow flicker – the effect caused inside a property when a wind turbine sits between it and the sun – is subject to planning guidance that requires wind farm developers to assess and mitigate shadow flicker impacts at properties in the vicinity of their developments.

During the development stage, software is used to identify the turbines that will cause flicker and the properties that will be subject to it. During the construction stage, wind turbines that are predicted to cause shadow flicker are typically fitted with mitigation technology that stops the turbine at certain times of year and day if the weather conditions are such that flicker would occur.

Doesn’t mitigation technology remove shadow flicker as an issue?

In theory, this use of software and mitigation technology means that flicker can be eliminated as an issue. However, in practice, complains about flicker continue to occur and wind turbines with mitigation technology continue to cause shadow flicker. The reasons for this are numerous and complex. Human error in setting up mitigation systems, inaccuracies in location data, system clocks becoming out of sync and tree shading of light sensors are just some of the causes.

The problem for wind farm operators is that when complaints do occur they are extremely difficult to investigate with residents asked to make a note of the times that they experience flicker. This is not only impractical for residents but is inadequate for understanding and resolving the issue.

The advantages of at-property flicker monitoring

Since 2016, Visualwind have been helping wind farm operators to investigate and resolve shadow flicker issues by recording the flicker that occurs at properties. The WindComply monitoring equipment records changes in light intensity and identifies the timings and intensity of shadow flicker as well as identifing which turbine is the cause of the shadow flicker.

With the data from WindComply, wind operators are able to identity the causes of flicker and take steps to resolve the issues.

Making use of modern IoT technology for long term remote monitoring

For Visualwind, the development of a new monitoring solution for shadow flicker presented various challenges. The equipment would need to run throughout the year with just the power provided by a solar panel. Data would need to be sent via the mobile network regardless of location. And the device would need to be small and enough to sit in or adjacent to the garden of residential property for weeks or months at a time.

These challenges were address with the use of modern IoT technology. The product was built around a low energy industrial computer with extended temperature components. A multiband modem with roaming SIM enabled the transmission of data from any location.

The WindComply system has been in continuous use since 2016 with deployments across the UK and Northern Europe. In each case, the causes of flicker were identified and resolved ensuring that wind farms remained compliant with planning conditions and residents concerns were addressed.

Do get in touch with us to find out more.

There are almost as many types of rent contracts as there are wind farm sites. Making accurate and timely rent payments can be an ordeal for owners of large renewable energy portfolios. But is it worth automating this process?

For owners of large renewable energy portfolios, calculating and processing rent payments is a challenge. In addition to being one of the most time consuming and complex of the admin tasks, it is one which must be done on time and with no margin for error.

This combination of requirements (repeated, time-consuming and high-precision) makes rent payment suitable for automation. But the very factors that make rent payments complex for humans are what make it complex to automate. Each lease agreement is unique – there are common factors (base rents, royalties etc.) but then there are the details (advance and arrears payments, RPI and CPI reviews, Scottish quarters and English quarters, top-ups, landlord usage, and the list goes on.) Is it really possible or realistic to digitise all of the pertinent components of every lease agreement and automate the whole process?

Rent payment automation is a game changer

For the first customers of Visualwind’s WAM renewable energy management software, rent payment automation was a key priority. And because WAM incorporated all the data streams needed for rent payment calculation (meter data, SCADA data, PPA/FIT/ROC rates and invoices), it was in theory possible to fully automate rent payment. We wanted WAM to be a serious time saver for owners of renewable energy fleets and so we took on the challenge of automating rent agreements. We knew it was not a small undertaking but the time and complexity of automating every lease in a large portfolio was considerably greater than we anticipated.

But for the customer it is a game changer. Each month instead of digging out data from multiple data sources and updating impenetrable spreadsheets, they now can view all upcoming payments in WAM. When they click into a payment they can see all the backing data and calculations clearly displayed and then it’s just a click of a button to send out remittance advice to their landowners and send payment details to their accounts team for payment.

The great thing for us is that having having gone through the painful process of digitising hundreds of lease agreements, we’ve have most bases already covered. When a new customer begins using WAM, there is inevitably something new in their lease agreements that need handling in WAM but by and large the process of onboarding new lease agreements is very quick.

Find out more about Renios or get in touch with us to find out more.

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.

Read more about Adamas.