Work Package 1

Collect, stream and publish open-sea operating data

Objective: Collect, stream and publish 2 years of open-sea operating data of both a floating WEC and a shoreline wave power plant

Open-sea operating data is urgently needed to identify and quantify the challenges experienced at-sea to prioritise the development and innovation effort required for solving them.

OPERA will remove this roadblock at minimal cost to the Commission by taking advantage of both a nationally-funded testing of the Oceantec floating OWC at bimep and the new wave power plant nearby at Mutriku to collect and share unprecedented quantity and quality of open-sea operating data.

This work package has the crucial remit to ensure state of the art instrumentation is installed and operates as planned in the harsh open-sea environment. This is articulated in the following three specific objectives:

Plan and operate open-sea instrumentation after de-risking the shoreline plant
Provide state of the art operating data to the other work packages
Install and maintain an effective online data query and dissemination tool

The data of interest to improve open-sea operation in the sector as a whole is that on operating conditions of off-the-shelf components shared throughout the sector (e.g. mooring, generator and most elements of the power conversion process, wave data).

Task to be performed

Process instrumentation definition

After finalising the specification of all data needs from other work packages, complying with relevant IEC technical specifications as input from WP5 and with the cost, risk and failure data collection protocols defined by WP7, and fully exploiting existing infrastructure at Mutriku shoreline plant and bimep, an instrumentation diagram for both Mutriku and bimep will be designed. Ensuring continuous data collection will be a major focus, capitalising on consortium experience with previous deployment to avoid failure-prone sensor and devise seaworthy installation, wiring and interfacing. Risk of sensor failure will be systematically identified and a contingency plan prepared, including redundancy of critical components.

Sensor integration and data collection

After hardware installation and cabling, sensors software will be integrated (scaling, processing) within the existing systems at the shoreline plant and on the WEC. The mooring monitoring system will be installed on two different WEC configurations, and the turbine built-in sensors in integrated in the control and monitoring system at the shoreline plant and then at bimep. Testing at the Mutriku shoreline plant will be an opportunity to sea-proof instrumentation with little cost for component replacement compared to offshore, update the risk matrix and improve instrumentation diagram and components before deployment on the floating WEC. Offshore, the necessary inspection, maintenance, replacement or data recovery operations will be planned to minimize logistics costs and environmental impact following recommendations from WP6.

Environmental monitoring system design and deployment

Optimal upwave distance of wave sensors will be determined, chiefly from trading-off accuracy vs observation lead time before wave impact, as determined from control hardware and software constraints. Data transmission system should permit real-time data collection at least at Mutriku and processing and battery will be dimensioned accordingly. Wave sensors will be deployed at bimep and at Mutriku.

SCADA, database and online data query and dissemination

A SCADA system will be developed that allows partners to access monitoring information locally and remotely. An online data query tool with standard interface (SQL) will be operational by Month 12 for use within project, and for open dissemination by Month 18. The latter will be designed to remain operational at least 5 years after project end.

Involved Partners

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654.444