Better monitoring at French tidal energy site
French tidal and ocean stream turbine developer, Sabella, has joined forces with fellow French software vendor, QOS Energy, to improve monitoring of the former’s Ushant tidal energy project.
Sabella’s 1MW D10 turbine was initially commissioned in 2015 in the Fromveur Passage, a strait that lies between Ushant Island and the Molène archipelago, off the coast of Brittany.
After undergoing upgrades, the tidal turbine was redeployed for the second time in October 2018 at a depth of 55 metres and now has more than 100 sensors gathering data every 5 minutes.
Jean-François Daviau, chief executive of Sabella, explained that operating a tidal turbine at such depth is particularly challenging and that analysis plays a vital role.
“QOS Energy’s data intelligence platform enables our O&M team to visualise critical KPIs such as water pressure, temperature, swell energy prediction, rotor speed or torque compared to power produced. We need this cutting-edge monitoring capability to be able to fully understand performance, and effectively control potential failures.”
Off-grid tidal energy can be of benefit to the 11,000 islands representing a population in excess of 730 million people. In most cases, these communities rely on expensive and polluting diesel-powered technologies to ensure power supply.
Jean-Yves BELLET, vice president and chief technical officer of QOS Energy said that tidal energy will play an important part in the future, providing clean, sustainable energy.
“We are very pleased to innovate with a pioneering company such as Sabella and make progress in the important field of tidal O&M. We believe that effective plant monitoring and optimisation will be instrumental in bringing this emerging technology from the margin to the mainstream.”
By Rebecca Strong
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