WindESCo, a leading provider of asset performance and reliability solutions for wind turbine stakeholders, has introduced its FIND, FIX, MEASURETM (FFM) Software-as-a-Service analytics technology at CEZ’s 600 MW Fantanele-Cogealac wind farm in Romania. This cutting-edge technology is expected to enhance turbine performance and reliability, reverse efficiency losses from ageing assets, and increase Annual Energy Production (AEP) of one of Europe’s largest onshore wind plants.
According to industry experts, ageing wind assets require large-scale intervention, decommissioning, or repowering, all of which are costly. Wind turbines are subject to gradual power generation decline over time, making it challenging to reverse the trend. It requires continuous, in-depth, and verified analyses across hundreds to thousands of individual turbines to generate maximum AEP recovering opportunities.
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WindESCo’s FFM is a continuous, scalable optimisation solution for wind assets. It works by analysing high-resolution SCADA to deliver performance and reliability improvements, without the need for additional hardware. FFM pinpoints anomalies affecting wind turbine performance through 60+ continuous checks of the SCADA from every turbine. FFM then provides recommendations and instructions to fix each anomaly, including the financial and AEP impact. Once fixes are completed, the system calculates and reports the performance improvements in both financial gain and additional MWh at the turbine, site, and fleet levels.
Fantanele-Cogealac is among Europe’s largest onshore wind farms and comprises 240 2.5 MW GE turbines. Since its commissioning in 2012, its wind assets have required various solutions to boost overall performance and reliability. While performance and reliability analytics can typically add extra work hours to pinpoint optimisation opportunities, FFM enables internal teams to leverage their key performance managers, prioritise work, and subsequently save time and money on adding additional manpower.
Liviu Gavrila, Chief Generation Officer, CEZ Romania, said, “Over the past decade, our wind assets at Fantanele-Cogealac have helped us reliably serve our customers with clean renewable energy. WindESCo’s solution will complete the optimisation tools package implemented by our team across the years, allowing us to better manage and improve the performance of our assets.”
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Ed Wagner, Chief Revenue Officer, WindESCo, stated, “Our only job is to increase the AEP of underperforming wind assets, both onshore like Fantanele-Cogealac and offshore. Without active monitoring of high-performance data, there is a risk that underperformance can become baked into long-term production. It’s our objective to ensure that wind assets remain optimised for improved production – crucially without requiring our clients to invest in more people and further hardware technology.”
WindESCo’s FFM solution is a cost-effective way to improve the performance and reliability of ageing wind assets. With its continuous, scalable, and non-intrusive approach, it provides clients with an effective way to ensure maximum AEP recovery opportunities without adding additional hardware or manpower.
