Monitoring the World's Northernmost Wind Farms

The independent service provider seebaWIND Service GmbH (Germany) has been monitoring 15 Nordex N80 wind turbines with a total nominal power of 37.5 megawatts since the beginning of May. Since they are around 50 kilometres south of the North Cape, these turbines are commonly subject to wind speeds of 35 to 40 metres per second and quickly changing wind direction; for this reason, this wind park, particularly in the winter months, is one of the most challenging to operate in the world.

 With a total construction height of 120 meters, the plants have been designed for wind speeds of 4 to 25 metres per second and generate a total of 90 million kilowatt hours of energy annually, which is sufficient for the needs of more than 25,000 households. Via DSL connection to its modern remote centre in Osnabruck, seebaWIND Service monitors the wind part daily, from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. as well as during the entire weekend. Its engineers can react to errors within 15 minutes.

“Thanks to its average wind speed of 9 m/s, the location offers massive potential to generate energy. As it is paired with extreme climatic conditions, this potential needs, however, corresponding support”, explains Jörg Fuchs, Head of Technical Operation at seebaWIND Service, adding, “It is an exciting challenge, full of responsibility for us, to monitor and correct errors immediately at a wind park on the polar circle from our remote location. With these extreme climatic conditions near the Arctic, where steel can fracture very quickly, you really need to know what you are doing!”

Every morning, the service teams of the Norwegian wind park operator, Arctic Wind, receive a report on what happened at night. The seebaWIND team notifies the service technicians on location if there are malfunctions that cannot be corrected by dial-up. In addition, seebaWIND compiles a preliminary analysis to put the mechanics in a position to proactively confront anything conspicuous before a turbine comes to a standstill.

“We are pleased to have found such a competent partner in seebaWIND Service“, says Maik Droese, wind park manager at Arctic Wind. He adds, “We anticipate that we can make our wind park significantly more effective, particularly at night, thanks to the quick reaction time and error correction.”