402 GE Wind Turbines To Get PowerUp Upgrade At 5 EDP Renewables Wind Farms

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As I wrote previously, when covering the unveiling of GE’s PowerUp solution in Chicago, PowerUp is a predictive “Industrial Internet” technology that can boost the output of a wind turbine by up to 5%, resulting in a profit increase of 20% (per turbine). At the event, I got to spend some time interview Andy Holt, the general manager of Renewable Energy Services at GE Energy. Andy noted that right there at the unveiling of the technology he got a handshake deal agreed upon with a major wind energy client. In all seriousness, why wouldn’t a client adopt this solution — there’s no requirement to pay unless it results in greater efficiency/profit.

I think that first deal was probably with E.ON — a 469-turbine (703½-MW) deal I reported on back in November. However, another big client, EDP Renewables, has also just announced that it is working with GE to incorporate PowerUp into 402 wind turbines (totaling 603 MW of capacity) at 5 wind farms in the US. Again, these are GE 1.5-77 wind turbines.

“By using PowerUp, EDPR is expected to increase power, generating more than 420,000 megawatt hours of additional energy each year, which would provide the equivalent power used by 33,000 average US homes,” a press release about the agreement announced.

“GE’s PowerUp software will allow us to improve the power curve and increase the annual energy production of these 402 wind turbines,” said Brian Hayes, executive vice president, EDP Renewables.

“GE’s PowerUp platform allows EDPR to realize almost immediate benefits to their bottom line input today and also allows us to incorporate new PowerUp technologies as they are developed. PowerUp will help EDP Renewables generate a higher power output and return on investment,” said Andy Holt regarding this latest deal.

At which specific wind farms will EDPR be incorporating PowerUp? These 5:

  • Blue Canyon V wind farm in Oklahoma
  • Meadow Lake III wind farm in Indiana
  • Top Crop I, Top Crop II, and Railsplitter wind farms in Illinois

For more info on PowerUp, check out my original post on the technology. Or, here’s a quick summary from the latest press release: “When PowerUp is activated, a GE software program performs a complete before and after wind farm power performance analysis, validating the performance improvement. By adjusting performance dials, including speed, torque, pitch, aerodynamics and turbine controls, PowerUp is able to improve the power output of each unit and the overall wind farm.” Or, check out these videos:

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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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