The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult has launched a unique new open-access data service designed to improve our understanding of how offshore wind farms operate in real-world conditions and support innovative research, projects and product development.
The Platform for Operational Data (POD) service offers a comprehensive series of data sets from ORE Catapult’s 7MW Levenmouth Demonstration Turbine in Fife, as well as the turbine’s metmast and electrical substation. It is hoped to expand the service in future to include data from other demonstrator sites in the UK and beyond to create a unique asset of operational data for research and development.
Access to data from offshore operational assets is critical to developing, demonstrating and validating new analytical models and methodologies being developed by suppliers, SMEs and researchers. However, accessing real data from renewable assets can be notoriously difficult and is often a major barrier to product development. POD has been developed to address this barrier and support the development of ideas, products and services.
Data sets available include time series from turbine SCADA, turbine alarms and events, met mast (on and offshore) and grid/substation information. Industry large and small, academics and researchers can use the data to test and validate data driven models, methodologies and analyses.
Chris Hill, ORE Catapult’s Operational Performance Director, said: “Big data and digitalisation is transforming our understanding of how wind farms work, and therefore our approach to building, operating and maintaining them.
“Existing Catapult services such as SPARTA and WEBS offer unparalleled benchmarking opportunities for companies to understand how their assets are performing relative to the industry standard. But our new POD service is the first to offer, for a nominal charge, open access data sets from operational offshore renewable assets for the benefit of the wider industry, academic and research communities.”
POD was enabled through funding from the Scottish Government and the service is available to access through ORE Catapult’s website at https://pod.ore.catapult.org.uk