UK technology company Sennen has launched a new software module in recent months that gives wind farm operators “unparalleled insights into sources and causes of turbine downtime”.
The Downtime Analysis tool has been developed with funding from the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP) and Sennen says it allows operators to quickly and accurately understand production losses caused by individual defects, site incidents and other operational issues.
Existing systems for downtime analysis rely on an algorithm and ignore the best information source – that is people. This makes it difficult and time consuming to calculate losses because it requires excessive cross referencing with other systems.
Sennen says its system allows downtime events to be categorised easily, “and the user can enrich, refine and improve the raw data to create datasets that can be analysed from many aspects”.
“This means reliable information on production losses, that could result from component failure, poor response times or maintenance shutdown for example, can be quickly generated”.
Gaby Amiel, CEO and co-founder of Sennen, said: “We have developed a module which goes far beyond what is currently available on the market, allowing operators to take a deep dive into lost production data.
“The ability to enrich the data means operators can draw on the knowledge of the whole team to really understand the causes of downtime, and it can do this quickly and at high volume so it’s an ideal scalable solution.
“Our technology interfaces seamlessly with operators’ existing cloud data platforms which gives them much greater control over their data compared to traditional databases.”
The user interface allows ‘event stops’ to be viewed, investigated, overridden or enriched in a few clicks so the user can view and make informed decisions as quickly as possible, says the firm.
Claire Canning, grant funding programme manager at OWGP, said: “We are delighted to see Sennen go from strength to strength. The development of this Downtime Analysis module is just another example of how Sennen is disrupting the market with game-changing software solutions that can improve offshore wind operations on a global scale.”
Gaby added: “This type of project shows our commitment to developing powerful applications that enable the largest renewable energy operators in the world to increase safety and efficiency through digitisation as the energy transition continues at pace.”
Sennen was founded in 2017 with the aim of creating high performance software specifically for managing renewable energy assets. It is now an 18-strong team, mostly based in Bristol, UK. Clients include London Array, which uses Sennen software as a control room to direct work happening on site, and Foresight Group where Sennen is used to harvest data and improve performance of its renewable energy investment portfolio, and EDF Renewables.
For more information, visit https://www.sennen.tech/downtime-analysis/
