The first tidal energy plant to be installed in French waters is now being monitored by a sophisticated monitoring system developed by QOS Energy writes Dag Pike.
Sabella, a pioneering French tidal and ocean stream energy turbine developer, has partnered with QOS Energy to improve the performance monitoring of its ground-breaking Ushant tidal energy project. After developing prototypes the first 1MW tidal turbine of the plant which is submerged 55 metres under water off the west coast of France, is equipped with a QOS system that comprises more than 100 sensors to monitor both the performance and condition of the turbine. It now uses QOS Energy’s powerful data intelligence platform to identify, assess and anticipate potential failures, gathering data every 5 minutes.
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 the French region of Brittany where the tidal streams run very strongly. After undergoing key technology upgrades, the tidal turbine was redeployed for the second time in October 2018 with its new monitoring system.
Jean-François Daviau, who is the CEO of Sabella commented, “Operating and maintaining a utility-scale tidal turbine at such depth is particularly challenging, and data collection and analysis plays a vital role in doing so successfully. 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.”
Founded in 2008, Sabella is a pioneering tidal and ocean stream turbine developer, supplying reliable turnkey energy solutions worldwide. In the early 2000s, Jean François Daviau, along with Hervé Majastre, an engineer specialised in energy storage systems, created Hydrohélix Energies based on a subsea tidal turbine patent. Sabella was incorporated in 2008 and Daviau was appointed president. Based in Quimper in the Brittany region of France, the company counts around twenty employees and so far, two tidal turbines have been tried and tested in real conditions; the D03 and D10.
