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Marine-i event shares latest information on improving the reliability of wave energy converters

Marine-i Delivery Partner, Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, ran a Discovery Room Event on Friday 13th April 2018, where wave energy device developers from across the globe were introduced to the latest techniques set to radically improve the reliability of wave energy farms.

The event was attended by 16 specialists in this field, including companies that are currently developing new wave energy technologies.

ORE Catapult’s engineer, Dr Othmane El Mountassir, led the session, supported by Dr Tessa Gordelier, Research Fellow from the University of Exeter.

Dr Othmane El Mountassir shared findings from the latest phase of Reliability in a Sea of Risk (RiaSoR). This is an international collaborative project designed to improve the reliability of wave energy converters. The latest phase aims to establish a practical, condition-based monitoring platform to prepare for future arrays, where big data processing will be vital to drive down operational expenditure. Dr Tessa Gordelier gave a presentation of the latest findings on condition monitoring of offshore mooring systems for wave devices.

Following presentations and discussion, the main conclusions from the day were as follows:

• Volume of data. Due to the vast amounts of data that condition monitoring systems can collect, key decisions need to be taken about data compression, on or off the device, in order to gather this data. There needs to be highly robust communications, including very reliable data transmission links and sophisticated hardware.

• Standards. Industry standards are still in the process of being developed for marine renewables. It may, therefore, be valuable to help drive standardisation in the supply chain to have a wave developer forum to look at more detailed issues, such data management, electrical architecture, and moorings.

• Communications channels. With the large amount of data that is being gathered, it will be important to separate out critical, warning, and scientific sensor communications.

• Reliability of sensors: Developers need to consider suitability for the environment and application.

• South West Mooring Test Facility: Would it be useful to replicate this capability for wave energy converter deployment sites?

ORE Catapult will deliver an update to the wave sector on RiaSoR in Autumn 2018 and will be developing a training manual for the sector as part of the project.

For any further information on this, please contact Simon Cheeseman