General Electric (GE) has developed a system that promises savings for wind project developers both in planning and installation costs and time. It also ensures greater efficiency, according to a statement issued by the company.
GE claims its new system — Wind Collector Optimisation Service (WCOS) — can save 20 percent of design cost and reduce design cycle times by 60 percent. The system has been developed by GE’s digital energy business.
WCOS helps utilities, developers and contractors to create better projections of grids and to find the optimal layout for a project.
The system gives users the option to view the benefits and drawbacks of each design.
“With Wind Collector Optimization Service, we meet with customers early on in the process to establish what features and parameters are important to them and are required for their specific project,” Bob Turko, general manager of GE’s High Voltage Solutions business, said. “We utilize our design tool to design an optimized wind plant collector system, reducing the design cycle time and lowering the total cost of ownership for our customers.”
The newly developed algorithm, GE believes, enables flexibility which is lacking in traditional planning methods.
Project developers will be able to view the various designs on Google Earth to determine which suits their project site the best. Further, WCOS provides estimates of trenching and cabling costs and provides insights into improving efficiency through reduction of power loss, optimized design of cable sizes and trenching path configurations, the statement said.
Ajith Kumar S
editor@greentechlead.com