News

AWS Truewind Shares Plant Underperformance Expertise

January 29, 2009

The January issue of Wind Power Monthly takes a sober look at the issue of wind plant underperformance in the United States. AWS Truewind has been closely examining this issue for the past two years and has presented on the topic extensively over the past year. Windpower Monthly Editor Jesse Broehl reached out to AWS Truewind’s Director of Engineering, Eric White, to get a better handle on the possible causes of the significant production gap.

Mr. White confirms that a number of factors are involved, many of which are hard to isolate and evaluate however, AWST’s plant performance evaluation studies have honed in on the most significant contributing factors, quantified them, and have allowed us to begin identifying ways to close the gap. Based on our findings, plant availability and first-year effects are the number one contributing factor, accounting for 3-5% of the total production gap. The remaining factors; short term climatology, resource assessment biases, as-built plant changes and sub-optimal operation individually contribute approximately 1% resulting in an overall error range of 7-9%.

In June of 2008, AWS Truewind presented "Understanding and Closing the Gap on Plant Underperformance" at the American Wind Energy Association’s annual WINDPOWER Conference and Trade Show. The presentation sheds light on the prevalence of the issue across the entire US industry and presents potential solutions using operational data. For more information on how AWS Truewind’s Plant Performance Evaluation services can help improve your project portfolio and overall return on investment, contact us.

The full text article, titled "A Critical Gap in the Knowledge Bank", appears in the January issue of Windpower Monthly.