See the wind coming, plan the maintenance around it
A digital twin demo for a twelve-turbine wind farm on the ridge above a coastal city: from the weather forecast it simulates each turbine's wind and output and the city's demand three days ahead, and puts the maintenance in the window that loses the least output. The farm, the city and the data are simulated.
What's on the screen
- The 3D coast. Twelve turbines on the ridge (3.6 MW each, 100 m hubs), a met mast, the substation and the line down to the city; below, on the plain, the city, its port and the sea. The turbines turn with the wind at their hubs and face into it; the two in maintenance stand still, a crane at their feet. The "Wind" view colours the land by the wind over it, shows the air moving and lights each turbine's ring by its output.
- Farm and turbines. The output now and its share of capacity, the wind at the hubs, the turbines turning, the energy made since Monday; each of the twelve turbines' output.
- City. The demand now, the wind's and the grid's shares; the share from wind today and over the three days.
- Three-day forecast. The farm's output against the city's demand, the maintenance window, and the wind as a strip of colour underneath.
- Maintenance plan. An 8-hour stop of T4 and T9 is planned for Monday 13:00–21:00: the wind at the hubs reaches 16.8 m/s, far above the crew's 10 m/s working limit, and the window costs 57.6 MWh of output. The twin works out the possible windows on each of the three mornings and suggests Tuesday 07:00–15:00: the wind at most 4.8 m/s, a loss of 1.6 MWh. The 56 MWh gained is a day's electricity for 7,000 homes.
How to try it
- Use the camera buttons to move from the overview to the farm, the turbine in maintenance and the city, or drag to orbit.
- Scrub through the three days in the bar below: the dark stretches are the nights, the amber one the planned maintenance, the blue frame the suggested window.
- Switch on the "Wind" view. Move the maintenance to Tuesday with the switch on the maintenance plan card; the output, the chart and the scene change with it. "Show the maintenance" takes you into the window, next to the turbine.
- "Watch the film" plays the same scene full screen as a 26-second walkthrough.
In a real installation
This page is a demo: the farm, the city and the data are simulated and representative; it does not show a system installed at a wind farm. In a real installation, the wind and the output come from the turbines' SCADA system, the met mast and the weather forecast model, the demand from the distribution company's meter data, and the maintenance list from the maintenance management system.
If you would like to talk about your wind farm, write to us with the number of turbines, the systems you have and the problem you want to solve.