The GE Brief: April 1, 2021
WINDS OF CHANGE
GE Renewable Energy announced this week that it has been selected to provide more than 500 onshore wind turbines for a massive new installation in Oklahoma that will produce 1,485 megawatts of renewable energy. It is expected to be the largest combined onshore wind project in GE’s history to date. The North Central Wind Energy Facilities are being developed by Invenergy — a leading, privately held global developer of sustainable energy projects — and American Electric Power (AEP).
A critical transition: The project will encompass three large wind farms located in the north-central part of the state — the 999-megawatt Traverse Wind Energy Center, the 287-megawatt Maverick Wind Energy Center and the 199-megawatt Sundance Wind Energy Center. Construction of the three installations, which will be owned and operated by AEP, is currently scheduled to be completed in early 2022.
Read more about the North Central Wind Energy project here.
THE SPIN DOCTORS
If you regularly drive long distances, it’s a good idea to pop your car’s hood every few months for a thorough inspection. But if you’re only running to the supermarket once a week, you may be able to take a rain check on that quarterly checkup. That’s the approach engineers at GE Renewable Energy are now using to service wind turbines. They are calling it “odometer maintenance,” and it could mean more money in the bank for the wind farm operator and more renewables online for everyone else. “You don’t necessarily need to change your car’s oil if it’s been sitting in the driveway for months,” says Brian Theilemann, global services continuous improvement leader at GE Renewable Energy. “It’s the same with a wind turbine. We’re shifting away from a time-based approach to maintenance, to a usage-based approach.”
Time shift: Theilemann and his team are using software that ingests mountains of hard data about power output, wind speed, internal and external temperatures, bearing usage and even the type of oil used to lubricate a turbine’s gearbox. The software’s statistical model then delivers insights that help them determine the favored time for maintenance, which can extend the time a turbine stays online during the windy season. In fact, power producers can leverage odometer maintenance to schedule a fleet checkup during the less windy months of the year, which are less lucrative in terms of wholesale power revenues.
Click here to learn more about how odometer maintenance works.
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— QUOTE OF THE DAY —
”As the U.S. and the world have adopted increasing amounts of renewable energy, Invenergy and GE are helping to accelerate this change by being the partners of choice for utilities and other leading companies that want to be part of the ongoing and critical transition to affordable, more sustainable renewable energy.“
— Tim White, CEO for Onshore Americas at GE Renewable Energy
Quote: GE Reports. Images: GE Renewable Energy.