European Wind Partners Save Time and Money on Technical Documentation through New Guidelines

Siemens Gamesa, Vestas, Ørsted, Vattenfall and several other partners are collaborating on developing new guidelines that interpret standards for the wind industry. The first guidelines are ready for use and will ensure consistent documentation of technical information independently from wind corporation. This will ultimately help the value chain reduce time and money.

The organizations of the wind industry follow a set of existing standards for technical information management. However, documentation of this information is created in inconsistent ways across the parties involved which requires resources and time to clarify. Therefore, Siemens Gamesa, Vestas, Ørsted, Vattenfall and several other partners have joined forces in the innovation project TIM Wind with help from Energy Cluster Denmark in order to produce concrete guidelines that interpret standards for the wind industry. In this way, it becomes easier and more consistent to structure, categorize and code the technical information.

“What we want to do with RDS PS, which is the new standard, is to agree on a common language where we name the wind turbine from different aspects in the same way regardless of it’s a wind turbine from Vestas, Siemens Gamesa or another brand. So, when our customers like Vattenfall, Ørsted and others receive documentation from one of the corporations, then we have the same understanding and description in the form of codes. By simplifying it and making it more consistent, we will avoid having to translate and create transparency, and this will save money and time for everyone in the end,” says Christian Lindegaard Hovde, Advanced Electrical Engineer at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.

The first guidelines are ready

Three guidelines are finished and ready for use in the global wind industry. The first guideline is based on IEC 61355-1 ’Document kind Classification Codes for the wind industry.’ The newest two guidelines interpret the RDS PS-standard based on ISO/IEC 81346-10 ’Reference Designation Standards for Wind Power Systems.’ In one guideline, the partners have focused on identifying and describing the components of the wind turbine; tower, nacelle and blades. The other guideline is centered around the foundation for the wind turbine, both onshore, offshore and floating.

“One guideline is about the wind turbine, and the other is about the foundation. Both can be used by everyone in the global wind industry. We started on doing the first bit of the hard work which was to define the structure. The next part was documenting what we figured out with a proper written text guideline. From the beginning, we’re writing it in a style that could lead to the documents being made into ISO-documents which are more accepted globally,” says Ronald Donnelly, Senior Engineer Reference Designation at Vattenfall.

Potential for digital solutions

Right now, there is a big push towards digitalization, data and artificial intelligence in the industry. The new guidelines play a big role in this, as it gets easier to work with digital twins of the wind turbine. A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical object or system and can for instance be used to predict breakdown or wear, for improvements or readjustments of production and processes, or for service assignments.

“When we get digitalized, it gets a lot easier to make a digital twin of our wind turbines when we have a proper, consistent structure for codes. That makes it possible to link documentation to it where you will have manuals, drawings and pictures. Then, when you are walking inside the wind turbine, you can use the digital twin to for instance see when a component has been replaced last,” says Knud Haugaard Jacobsen, Senior Specialist at Vestas Wind Systems.

Incorporated energy technologies

In the long term, the partners plan to cooperate on making guidelines for all elements that concern a wind farm such as the electrical, SCADA and the layout of the wind farm. Simultaneously, the partners are preparing the ground for the possibility that the new guidelines can be incorporated into other green energy technologies such as batteries, solar energy and Power-to-X, so that an even bigger effect is achieved.

“The next step is that we will try to take it to another level regarding how we can break it down for a wind farm. And then, we can start to investigate how we can get solar, wave and Power-to-X onboard and get these technology fields to understand the methodology. We would like to use it as an appeal for other industries to give their contribution. Hopefully, in 5-10 years, we are so far ahead that it is widespread and works perfect,” says Christian Lindegaard Hovde.

Facts about TIM Wind

TIM Wind stands for Technical Information Management for the Wind Industry. The innovation project began in the end of 2019 and is financed by the wind industry. The partners consist of: Vestas Wind Systems, Nordex Acciona, GE Vernova Offshore Wind, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Vattenfall, Ørsted, RWE, Equinor and DNV. Energy Cluster Denmark is facilitating the innovation project.

Would you like more information about TIM Wind? Contact Christian Munk Jensen, Project Manager, Energy Cluster Denmark: +45 5055 2606 / cmj@energycluster.dk.

Read more about TIM Wind here timwind.org