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New milestone achieved for offshore wind O&M
The Teesside offshore windfarm is one of ROMEO’s project sites.
New milestones achieved for offshore wind O&M
Photo courtesy of EDF.
ROMEO PROJECT, WHICH FOCUSES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES TO REDUCE OFFSHORE WINDFARM’S O&M costs, has entered its fourth year of execution with the achievement of crucial milestones such as the deployment of the data acquisition and analytics ecosystem, and the verification that the ROMEO platform may be effectively applied for O&M optimisation.
ROMEO Project (Reliable O&M decision tools and strategies for high LCoE reduction on Offshore wind) is an initiative funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme. Its main objective is to reduce offshore O&M costs through the development of advanced monitoring systems and strategies, aiming to move from corrective and calendar-based maintenance to condition-based maintenance, by analysing the real behaviour of a wind turbine’s main components (WTGs). The innovations developed within the R&D work packages (WPs) will be tested in three use cases managed by the operators of the East Anglia One (UK), Teesside (UK), and Wikinger (Germany) windfarms. The use cases will demonstrate the benefits achieved by the project and ensure that the project will be replicated at other wind farms.
Twelve key players ROMEO is an industry-based consortium made up of twelve recognised and experienced key players from six different EU member states and one associated country, led by Iberdrola. The consortium includes large companies (Adwen, Bachmann, EDF, IBM Research Zurich, Minsait INDRA, Ramboll, Siemens Gamesa), SMEs (Laulagun Bearings, Uptime Engineering, and ZABALA Innovation Consulting) and the Strathclyde University, and will work jointly to benefit decision
making processes of offshore WF operators. This project is awarded by the European Commission with a Horizon 2020 Programme Grant of EUR 10 million and a total budget of approximately EUR 16 million running for five years.
Progress Significant progress has been made regarding the development of physical models that allow early fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis, and reduce the amount of failures. In addition, the connections for real-time data aggregation and integration have been tested, thus demonstrating the main operability of the project, from capturing data from windfarms to getting results in the O&M tool after having passed through the analytics cloud platform.
General assembly The project’s main achievements were discussed during the annual General Assembly, which was digitally held on 3 and 4 June due to COVID-19 restrictions. All partners of ROMEO’s consortium gathered to analyse the results of their work in the different ongoing work packages. By sharing this information, the project team members were able to coordinate the next steps for the following months, which will be a new key period for the development of the project and its technologies. In the virtual General Assembly, the partners discussed the results of the work packages in different technical sessions and meetings. One of the topics that arose was the analysis of the work made on package 5, led by MINSAIT, which has been completed. The tasks were focused on the different data acquisition, processing elements, and protocols that address the needs of the overall system in order to cover the requirements identified in WP3 (wind turbine failure models for a running design) and WP4 (structural condition monitoring). Another topic that was discussed by the project partners was the progression of the Pilot Tests work package, which deals with testing in the use cases managed by the three ROMEO windfarms (Teesside, East Anglia One, and Wikinger). The next step, which will be essential in the following phase of the EU initiative, is the development of the data analytics models for offshore windfarms O&M, as well as testing the failure models, the O&M platform, and the analytics ecosystem at the three demo sites to verify the technology in a real environment.
ROMEO Project has designed a work plan that consists of three different phases.
Image courtesy of ROMEO.
Successful exploitation The first General Assembly day opened with a presentation and discussion about WP2, a work package that consists of the physical design of a new wind turbine diagnosis and prognosis solution, organised by Adwen, leader of the work package. The agenda’s other technical sessions followed, concluding with the training session preparation on WP9. WP9’s main goal is to ensure the successful exploitation and final impact on the wind power electric system of the technology and solutions that are being developed and demonstrated within the project. After these sessions, the partners celebrated an Exploitation Board meeting that included an IP and Standardisation Observatory guided by ZABALA, one of the partners. Lastly, the consortium had time for final comments and discussions. The second day of the General Assembly started with a Technical Committee Meeting and was followed by six technical sessions driven by different partners of the project: IBM Research Europe, Ramboll, Uptime, Iberdrola, and Strathclyde University. The progress achieved in their work packages, which focus on wind turbine offline failure models for a running design, structural condition monitoring, O&M information management platform, pilot tests in United Kingdom and Germany, and impact assessment respectively, was presented to, and discussed with, the rest of the consortium.
