Measurement campaigns management
BACKGROUND
The technical capability is the design and management of weather measurement campaigns for renewable energy plants.
Based on potential studies of renewable resources, SOLUTE helps its customers through the entire measurements campaign process, from the design and selection of weather stations, to tower management and reporting, providing a solid starting point in plant financing processes.
Since its establishment in 2006, SOLUTE has acquired extensive experience internationally in this area. We have our own campaigns management tool, allowing the customer to know the state of its projects in real time.
A measurement campaign is designed and managed that is representative of the location, with the aim of reducing costs and uncertainties in the development of the renewable energy project.
During the development of renewable energy plants, there is a preliminary process involving an assessment of the potential and search for suitable locations where to construct the project. Once the ideal locations for implementation have been selected, we design a suitable measurement campaign to obtain the necessary financing as well as to reduce the level of uncertainty.
The aim is to define and design the measurement points at the location, to ensure the best representation based on certain quality standards, the MEASNET regulation and IEC61400-12.
RESULTS
The expected results, depending on the campaign phase, consist of the wind potential assessment reports that help the customer to technically decide whether or not to move forward with the project. If the decision is made to move forward, SOLUTE will design a suitable measurement campaign, attempting to be representative and minimise uncertainty.
During the campaign, the customer will obtain all the data collected by its towers, both raw data as well as data that has been filtered by expert qualified technicians from SOLUTE, receiving reports and periodic assessments.
OTHER USES AND APPLICATIONS
These measurement campaigns are applicable to any installation requiring weather measurements: ports, airports, agrometeorology, automatic stations, etc., with the aim of improving the logistics of its processes, and preventing adverse events such as storms, icing or hail conditions.
The recipients of these other uses will be the owners of the plots, the public sector and logistics centre managers.
EXPERIENCE
Since its establishment in 2006, SOLUTE helps promoters and operators with park towers already installed, add various success stories to their track record. Currently we are managing more than 20 weather towers for wind parks as well as weather stations for five photovoltaic plants.
On the other hand, we are developing a campaign management application to carry out the work automatically
SOLUTE monitors the state of the towers and continuously verifies the received data. Also, SOLUTE regularly issues detailed reports about the campaign operation.
METHODOLOGY
At first, SOLUTE conducted a preliminary study of the wind resource at the locations based on available data in the area (weather stations, airports, reanalysis, mesoscale, etc.).
From this study, the potential of the location is determined and a wind campaign is designed, where SOLUTE uses its internal tools to, based on the future uncertainty and representativeness, define all the relevant parameters of the campaign. Some of these variables are the number, height, location and configuration of the weather towers as well as the viability of their accesses and installations.
Additionally, at locations where a weather mast cannot be installed or were additional measurements (in horizontal or vertical), or a mobile measurement campaign are required, the use of remote sensors such as SODARs and LiDARs, among others, are included in the project.
SOLUTE supports its customers throughout the entire process, carrying out many tasks such as providing specific recommendations for the location (ice, katabatic winds, vertical winds or different stability regimes), site visits during any project phase or milestone or third party consultations and checks during the campaign design processes, installation of masts and management of its data based on industry standards; primarily MEASNET and IEC.
Once the campaign is under way, the measured weather data is managed and processed in such a manner that SOLUTE will monitor the state of the towers and continuously verify the data that is received, as well as regularly issue detailed reports about the progress of the campaign with an in-depth analysis of the measured data.
Additionally during the process, MCP (Measure, Correct and Predict) or similar technology will be used in an attempt to recover any period where a malfunction has occurred or data is missing, thus increasing data availability. The aim of the entire process is to make weather data a solid starting point in renewable plant financing processes.
As tools, specialised wind resource and weather data management software such as FUROW or Windographer is used as well as GIS (Geographic Information System) programmes such as QGIS, ArcGIs and GlobalMapper. Additionally, SOLUTE has their own campaign software accessible to their customers, allowing them to view the state of the project in real time, as long as it is allowed by the connection with the dataloggers.
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