Digital twin wind perks

The partners of the EU ‘Digitalisation of Critical Components in Offshore Wind Turbines’ (DOCC-OFF) project held an industrial workshop on digital twin technology applied to offshore wind turbines in Belgium. The project is funded by the EU’s European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, led by the Basque Energy Cluster Association, in which HINE, XABET and SIRRIS-OWl Lab has also participated.

“During the workshop, the main outcome of the project was presented: the digital platform to process data from the hydraulic pitch system of a wind turbine, which enables failures in this system to be reduced at offshore wind farms,” reported the Basque Energy Cluster.

Results overview

Aritz Zubizarreta (HINE), as the developer of the hydraulic pitch system, gave an overview of the results and conclusions drawn from the Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), whilst Iker Elorza (IKERLAN), detailed the results obtained from the simulations and tests performed on a laboratory scale.

Zuriñe Varela (XABET), in charge of the development of the digital platform, gave a live demonstration of the tool, which is capable of detecting possible failures that may arise in the future, displaying the findings to the customer in an easy and visual way. The platform can also show the evolution of the health of the system at different time intervals, and in this respect, statistical modelling and data analysis have proven to be useful for the detection of potential problems in the hydraulic pitch system.

Bram Cloet (SIRRIS) revealed the system’s large-scale validation and demonstration strategy on a real offshore wind turbine. To do so, a full analysis of the data requirements has been carried out and the test bench has been selected for the large-scale validation campaign.

José Ignacio Hormaeche (Basque Energy Cluster Association), as coordinator, raised owners sharing operational wind turbine data to promote digitalisation in the sector and enhance the competitiveness of the wind power value chain.