SCADA system for floating offshore wind farms

Offshore wind is a highly promising source of renewable energy. Bottom-fixed foundations, however, can only be installed in water depths of up to around 60 m. Floating foundations are needed to access deeper waters, where most of the world’s best wind resources are found.

Hywind Scotland Pilot Park has already demonstrated that floating offshore wind is a viable solution. The next step is to develop floating offshore wind on a commercial scale and make it a competitive energy source.

Origo Solutions commissioned, designed, produced and tested the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system for Hywind Scotland Pilot Park. The SCADA system is based on a Siemens technology platform and includes an IEC-61850 interface to the electrical control systems as well as interfaces to ballast, weather, anchor monitoring and other auxiliary systems.

Origo Solutions’ SCADA system integrates the control systems, data acquisition system and operator interfaces for the entire floating offshore wind farm, the onshore substation, and the Batwind battery system.

Batwind is a new, onshore, lithium-ion-based battery system integrated into Hywind Scotland. The system can store up to 1 MWh of electricity from the five floating wind turbines, feeding it into the UK’s electricity grid as needed.

Origo Solutions’ SCADA system for Hywind Scotland incorporates interfaces to other SCADA systems at the wind farm. Relevant information from different sources is gathered and presented in a common interface, allowing the operator to work with a single interface for the operation in question.

Origo Solutions’ data logger was used for data acquisition, collection and sampling at Hywind Scotland. The data logger ensures that all data is synchronised and has the correct time stamp, enabling further analysis.

Origo Solutions is now developing the new SCADA+ ᵀᴹ solution, based on the valuable insights obtained through its delivery to Hywind Scotland.

The industry estimates the potential for floating offshore wind power at around 7 000 GW in Europe, Japan and the US combined. A number of these markets have set installation targets for 2030. Japan has the highest target, 4 GW to be installed by 2030, followed by around 2 GW in France, the UK and the US, and 1 GW in Taiwan.

Origo Solutions’ SCADA system is flexible, scalable and suitable for use in all types of wind farms (including fixed offshore wind and onshore wind) as well as other types of renewable energy production.