Presentation Description: Until now, wind turbine blade inspections have focused on finding blade defects and evaluating their structural risk. This is essential work but does not consider an important question: how is blade contamination and damage (such as leading edge erosion) impacting energy production? Power Curve and SkySpecs have teamed up to answer this question, building on both companies’ vast experience experience of acquiring and evaluating blade inspection data. Power Curve and SkySpecs have designed a methodology to utilise the images captured by autonomous drone inspections for evaluating production loss. The inspection images are categorised by aerodynamic impact and this data is used to drive high fidelity aerodynamic models such as Blade Element Momentum and Computational Fluid Dynamics to calculate the loss in production compared to a clean, undamaged blade. This information will provide turbine operators with invaluable insight in to how to manage their assets to maximise production through tailored blade maintenance and repair schedules and the tactical use of aerodynamic upgrades. For every inspection carried out Power Curve and SkySpecs will be able to offer a customised aerodynamic upgrade package to mitigate the impacts of leading edge erosion and contamination, which on a typical site will yield annual energy production improvements of 2-4%.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion, participant will be able to describe the impact of blade leading edge condition on turbine power production.
Upon completion, participant will be able to describe how drone imagery can be used to evaluate power production loss.
Upon completion, participant will be able to describe common aerodynamic add-ons and their impact on turbine performance.
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