Wind Energy Engineering Projects (5,284 words)

This is a transcript of the BA Video Series Linkedin Live webinar on WIND ENERGY PROJECTS

You can also listen to this video via the PODCAST

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Speakers

Sudhanshu Rai

Vijay Nair

Intro

Vijay Nair:

The topic for today is a vendor energy projects. And we've got our guest speaker Sudan Shu right on our call today. We've got a student shoe on the, on the call here and she's a very experienced veteran, I would say in the bit energy industry. So I'll let it go then shoe. Do a quick intro offense of you like takeaway.

Sudhanshu Rai:

Yep. Thanks. The as you said, my name is Sudan Shariah. I come from India and living in Denmark. Of course I'm not veteran in the wind energy. My electrical background is my academic background is electrical engineering and I'm working in brain for the last 10 years. So yes, quite good experience in the wind.

And that's what I'm going to talk to the Yeah, totally. The purpose is not as serving, especially to those who are either new in the wind or looking forward to join, been industry.

Vijay Nair:

Great. Thanks so much. So We're going to talk a lot about the wind energy technology, the projects, and then a little bit of that, but just for our viewers to get some insights into, into this industry the way, the way I see it and salute you, wouldn't be able to have to correct me on this.

Is there are two areas. If I have to look at it as high level. You got the VIN farm the projects that are happening in the wind farm world and the, the hap, and then the projects that are happening before you installed it in the bin farm, which is, which is the area where the choose vegetables basically.

And that's the area where. We're going to be focusing more on the production of the other vendor energy technology, I guess, to put it in layman's terms and focus more on that rather than the actual installation in the bid form, which comes further down the line. So we'll the session will be focused more on the first part of it, which is the both production side.

So stern show. Yeah. So if you could give us our viewers a little bit insight starting from maybe the. The beginner's level of what, what it's like to be working in this area, the starting with the different job titles, the different profiles, the different types of people that are involved in these in the production the production life cycle.

Project Experiences

Sudhanshu Rai:

So let, let's just start with this way. Maybe I can first state start using a little bit explaining some of the terminologies. Using the wind like wind energy itself is the terminology. And then maybe then I can go a little more, that how the wind farm lifecycle look and where the wind turbine fits in that actually.

And then as you said that going more, a little bit deeper in the wind turbine. So what technologies are and how How the wind turbines are produced and installed. And then of course, then finally we can have the questions answered. That would be more interactive. And then keep talking actually let's talk about the terminology.

Some of the terminologies used in the wind wind NRG. When someone say wind NRG, actually the mean. Electricity generated from a wind means from a wind turbine. So that is electricity generated from winter wine and regionally you call internet. And then there is another terminology. If you come in renewal year, unlock power curve, and that's requires a little bit understanding how the wind turbine works.

So I have a wind turbine and not this one, sorry. Yeah. So I have intertwined model. So typically what happened that the winter's coming, interacting with this special arrow profile of these plates and generating a force on this plate and. Rotating it, and that is a generator which is producing power, but let's suppose a, let's say this is a three megawatt wind turbine.

Of course it will be pretty big, but we locked produce three megawatts all the time. So it depends on what is the wind speed. It will produce the power. So the physics is basically the power is function off the . So basically the rotor area. And doing the speed. So when you put this on paper what is the power?

So like Lexapro three megawatt is producer. Let's say 11 meter wind speed. So below 11 meter, it will not be three megawatts. So basically the power and window speed relation for a particular turbine. We always call it power curve. And then then one terminology, one more E annual energy production, and you'll hear more.

And that's, again, goes on. If let's suppose wind turbine is producing three megawatt all the time. Then we can say, okay, three megawatt multiplied by 8,760 hours in a year. And that's a kilowatt hour or megawatt hour. Megawatt hour is energy production. But again, wind has a lot of variability. So sometime we run this.

11 sometime Gido sometime three, sometimes five meters per second, sometime 25 meters per second. So when you look the whole list, statistics of it, distribution, and then you look from power curve that okay. And given wind speed, what would be the power? And then you add together, and then you say, here is the annual energy production of the wind turbine.

So that's a, that's the turbine itself. Now many times you hear about it when prom or when park. So when parks are nothing but power plant of wind turbine. So Interline power plant. I mean, it's those who are working in gastro wind or some other power sector, there is a power plant. So here also the wind turbines are.

Multiple wind turbines are there. They are electrically connected and they are producing power to the grid and not some informant. If those turbines are on the land, then we call it the answer, wind farm. And if they are in the sea, then we call it off sort of info. So that's a wind park or wind farm when you, when you talk about, and they did one more thing about wind farm it depends on the geography you are, which part of the country, or which part of the word They did the grid constraint, wind farms.

So basically you can, you can get the permission to make a suppose 50 megawatt wind farm, and then it's up to you. You want to put a 10, five megawatt turbines? There are twenty-five two megawatt turbines. But then there is another part type of wind farms we call it. But isn't constant bad constraint where number of polices are fixed.

So means there, the megawatt is not fixed when you sun is fixed. So they add, if you put a like, suppose you are allowed to put 10 turbines, So, if you put a five megawatt turbine, then you have a 50 megawatt park, and if you put two megawatt turbine, then you have a 20 megawatt. So that's also a quiet having said that a lot go more on terminologies because there are many, and maybe we.

We go and then maybe your viewer have some questions we can ask about, but they didn't. One more terminologies is very important and we call it LCO. So levelized cost of energy. And I will talk a little bit later when I explain about a little bit to mean and Juma out how the wind farm life cycle is and where the wind turbine fits in that.

So moving to the wind farm life cycle. And one of the intents and purpose is telling is also to get an understanding that it's not only the turbine is it's quite broader view in a wind energy. And the opportunity to work is in many areas in. Of course, including wind turbine itself and designing and developing.

So the developer of wind farm in our world, we call it customers because we, we make wind turbine. So. I think the, if I take example, a simple example answer, because officer will become little bit more time consuming and more digital. So first thing we need the land, there is a need to have a land Chile that is accessible and our level to put the wind turbine, then there has to be a good wind condition.

Because that's what a wind turbines needs to produce the energy. And once you have a good wind condition, then the produce energy has to be transported through the grid. So there has to be nearby create and transmission system. So when these are liabilities, are there, I need to involve a lot more land equity, CERN permitting.

so where I was. Okay. So I was on a development site. So the greatest study is there.

And of course the winter study there's two is done. And then there is a final investment decision in his own wall. So if that is to proceed, then a lot of financing and pre-construction party involvement. So, and if you look at financing that has a two-part one is if you produce the electricity that has to be sold, somebody has to buy it.

And it Tom called BPA the power purchase agreements. Then of course there has to be financing to to make this whole wind farm. And then the procurement is there. So all the long lead item like turbines and then service station these all has to be procured. And these all, if you look the time, period, it depends quiet very but answer it's typically like one to three years.

Sometime goes five-year in opposite. It's quite longer. And then construction. So one, once everything's in place, then the construction phase is quite fast in answered. Set on one year, depends on the box size. How many turbines are there actually, and there, the turbine, which is, has been sold. To the customer, they are being produced then transported and quite a lot of heavy lifting and cleaning walls in that.

So the installation is involved and after installation the commissioning is involved and final commissioning is done and the cable is connected to the, to the service station and to the transmission systems, a grid connection. And then turbine comes in operation. So turbines start producing electricity when farm is delivering the electricity.

And that went for moves in the operation phase, which is typically in answered 20 to 25 year. Again, that could be exceptions. So design life of turbines specificity. So whatever the life of turbine it is going to produce electricity. And lot of operation and maintenance kind of work is involved that time.

Of course, energy creating is also part of that. And then once the design lifetime is over. That could be an opportunity to life extension, but to simplify if the job of the wind turbine is done, life is over, then it needs to be safely environmental friendly need to be decommissioned it. So that's the life cycle.

And one thing is important to understand that when I talked LCO before levelized cost of energy, that involves this. Cost. So basically development costs. Then we have a cap ex capital expenditure on building this whole, a wind farm. Then we have an OPEX, operational operation and maintenance cost and then decommissioning costs.

So if you take all these costs and add it financially it can't be just a cosmetic stamp. And then the life cycle energy production, how much is produced. And then you take the ratio, then it is a levelized cost of energy. So what is the cost of Antarctic bar megawatt hour is produced? So that's I would say like a German tomb out of the wind farm lifecycle, and then went to bind fits if you want to get the next one, the bad news from Walker long-term speaking from/

Yep. And then I, I can I can go a little bit now deeper on the turbine side, if you allow everything. Yeah. Yep, yep. Yep. So again, I'll, I'll take the turbine. I'll talk about some terminologies. Actually, I came in the industry from working from gas, vine, and generators.

So, so I remember it was not easy to follow the terminology. Science and physics was quite quite easy to follow when you go into deeper. So you have a blade. And then blade is connected to the hub. So we call it hub and a, there is a bearing here. So basically the blade can can twist here can can be rotated.

And then this is, this part is called the, of the backside where this rotation is inside. There is a generator, there could be gearbox or there could be direct generator. And then this is the tower. Okay. Let me make sure that it's in front of camera. So this is the tower actually. So from here to here, we call it hub height.

And then from ground to this one top, we call it the department because in somewhere you'll see a lot of regulations about depart. You'll hear about what is the hub Heights. Yep. So these are a lot of the terminologies commonly use it. And if you go more deeper on the technology side, and I'm just thinking that before I go to deeper, maybe I just take a step back about turbine, right?

We all hear about turbines and I don't exactly remember the textbook definition, but I remember my understanding of turbine is. That any mechanical device that rotates and extract power from the fluid. So, so any fluid is flowing and it's extracting the energy from the fluid. And if you connect the generator, then it's to work back to electricity is, is a wind turbine engine.

So if you have a gust turbine, then basically you have a gas, hot gas is coming from combustor in the turbine. It's extracting the energy. If you have a steam turbine, then you have a steam coming from boiler and it's rotating. If you have a hydro turbine, then the water is coming from the diamond and rotating.

So in all three cases, you will find the fluid is in control. So you can control the fluid, which is flowing. I that it's a gas artists, esteem artists, a Walker, and there, the wind turbine become very different, very different because the fluid which is flowing, you cannot control it because you cannot control the wind speed.

In fact, you cannot control the direction. It can kind of be like this, then it can be suddenly like this. And they are the, if you cannot control the flu. Then you have to control. And that's one of the starting point how the wind turbine I saw hardest was different. So there was a lot of control involved.

That's the more in walk to the turbine because we put an uncontrolled environment. And then then of course then it's the starts with a more complex, if you, if somebody wants to know what kind of technology is involved, if somebody, the engineering colleagues are looking. So now let me make sure.

Okay, now it's easier. So yeah. So this is the blade. And typically I need to target the audience that not as three everybody's aerodynamics, so. Let me put this way. When air and structured in walls together, interact together. There's a lot of dynamics happening and that we call it Aero elastic.

So when there is a blade, the wind is coming and control is happening. So there is a lot of arrow elastic involved, and then we call it early, lost in simulation. So, so typically a once you decide. And that involves a lot of commercial and technical decision. What kind of size of turbine would be, what kind of lens we want to for the blade and rating?

Then the first thing is of course we need to do Aero elastic simulation. So a lot of technologies involved in terms of played and control and some lessons itself at elastic similes, and that generates load. So what kind of optimum load would be, and that goes to the structure, engineers designing. So basically a lot of.

Squared biggest structure. So the structural technologies are quite important in that terms. And since data, your decision about how fast we are going to rotate it, there are multiple fact, very few are announced, or the noise is one actually, because you cannot be too fast. So the noise could be the reason once you decided then daily the target.

So how much dark Jan Bates. And based on that, then one has to decide, okay, how the, the, the electrical energy conversion system will look like. So if it is a gearbox, the Nan generator, then what would be the gearbox ratio. And then. Depends on the generator speed. So then a lot of design and expertise goes in that side.

The technology involvement cost, if it is diet guide generator, then of course the generator technology become more critical and more more expertise goes in the generator side. So once the electrical energy is converted from the stark, then that needs to be produced to deliver to the grid in a very good, friendly manner.

And there you have a converter control. And then we have a transformer. I remember I started my career in the semen plant and I used to scare to walk through coming out of college through the transformer. There used to be a little bit noisy, and that was only like 33 kilovolt transformer is a 33,000 per transform.

Now there's wind turbines are having like a 66,000 worth of turbine transformers. So, so you can think about the advancement in the technology and. And the excitement of especially from engineer point of view. So yeah, so basically like you have a, kind of a mini sub station inside itself, and then it's also involved a lot of thermal management So cooling and then thermal kind of technologies.

And a lot of time when we talk, we forget about talking about the architecture itself, so that kind of skill and excitement, because you have a lot of components to put together. And then they did a lot of interactions, human interactions. Like you could you may have to repair it. There could be a people involved.

So there could be ergonomics requirement for repair. Maybe you need to transport some of the components through some ways. So a lot of architecture involved with how to put it together for the best, most optimal way. And then last but not least, actually the dirt simulation, because I talked about When you have a wind farm in the life cycle, right?

I mean, when you decide how good wind is, but also you say, okay, how to transport these energy, what I produced. So you need a lot of grid models of this turbine that that goes to understand that particular location, how the, this whole wind farm bill we have actually with the grid and how best you can control, and then to make sure that it is.

It is doing really well. That's what I thought of a high level. Continue. 

I mean, let's, let's that there hasn't been any questions coming, but I'm seeing people starting to tune it slowly, slowly, but let's try to add some questions while we, while we are on these topics. So what are the typical questions.

That easily my community viewers normally end up asking is what are the hiccups or the challenges that happened? In the process of engineering, the wind farm the bid to abides the whole process. So you've, you've explained to us like the engineering technologies and some of the key aspects and building that whole surface and as well as the physics behind how it works, which is great.

But when you look at it And these are some of the things that you may not learn. The Academy is, is the, the relationship that you have to deal with different types of people in more than the process of building this. And, and you know, there are obviously some kind of expectations we have on a whole range of engineers in the room and this people end up talking their views on how things are done.

And probably there are some. Nuggets of information that comes from these discussions that are not obvious in the, in the books that we read in the course. Maybe you could share a little bit about what are some of those difficult things, obstacles that are, that could slow the whole process of building the engineer?

I mean, in general, I have a, of course you always learn and there's no doubt about it. But I don't think I have seen. And maybe because I work in an environment where people are pretty much, very, very expert around, but yeah, if I, if I look, maybe I take a step back and I look more objectively that what you're asking one challenge would be, and one should be aware about was there is a lot of interactions of engineering.

With the production, with with the transport. So it's not something, I mean, one could be a simple example that if you just give a plate to make to start making a plate, you cannot make in isolation. So there is a lot of interactions with production and transport, whether you're going to transport with the train or truck.

So, so the safe is not just the aerodynamics actually. It's a quiet interactions with the different kind of value chain to the same. Like I said about architecture, right? When you are putting the whole architecture. I mean if you if you forgot that, okay, how was some person can, can go and then replace that component?

The whole design is failing, right? Because that design huts to work next 20, 25 years to, to operate. So I can say that mostly I have seen the interactions and and understanding that how each components are depends in the value chain or with the colleagues differently and how, and not getting in detail to drag thing, but making the decision faster by understanding those parts.

So that's how I see would be a challenge for if somebody is very new. Yeah. And generally you have designed like a two, three turbine then of course you, you know that. Okay. 

So when we, so just going back, zooming into that specific so when we, when we come to the doc, come down to the decision on how many, for example, how many wind turbines do you need to build?

For your customer, your supplier, or maybe the wind farm is your customer. But when, or it that's just an example, but any decision type activities, what are like, what, what can you kind of newcomer the industry kind of expect the things that are going to, you could say slow down their job overall as an engineer or as an architect.

You know, some, some of the. I'm sure there are in bigger, bigger organizations that are going to be of course bureaucracy is always there regardless of what organization, but what bodily, how do you navigate through the different chain of decisions that need to happen before? The overall project is, is called a success according to the world that we're dependent.

I think Yeah. If someone is very new, they mentioned that they're the important that they connect to the people to understand the full value chain part of today, because the decision is, is always taken in context of a full value chain. And a second thing is at least my learning is always be humble.

And the reason is pretty simple because if you really look last 20 years, the wind industry I mean, 20 year ago, wind turbines were in range of two megawatt. Now we are talking 14 megawatt machines a 20 year ago, like grid point of view, you have a. Yeah, nobody really care. I mean, turbine, if you have a problem, just switch off and now expectation is Irvine.

You help grid to stabilize. If. If there is a disturbed fence and a cost of energy, if you look at that has gone, but below conventional the cost. So the growth has been very steep, very steep. So not necessarily that all my jumps in SWAT it started is still valid today. So it's all the way that I advise that being humble and curious and open And if that is that I have not seen, I mean that you, you have that challenge, but yes, I will summarize it.

If you're curious on your project that read all your interfaces, arch and you're open because maybe somebody can say that, Hey, I need this change and there could be a valid reason. And if this tool is there and you're making decision, generally, you don't see the problem. At least I have not experienced.

Okay. Interesting. And in, in the production cycle or the value chain that you call it maybe we can zoom a little bit to do value chain and what's that really about the overall process, but would you, would it be right to say this it's more linear in the overall production cycle? It's like a step steps, a step-by-step approach as opposed to our March more innovation, agile way of thinking where you're, you know, you're always looking for new ways of working to make the success.

Make the project success in, in, in engineering, the whole thing is what, how would you, how would you see from your, from yours from the number of years you worked in this industry? Like, is there a change in the, the when you look at the new people, come on board, as well as the, the old ways, what would you say is the critical difference?

Always vs new ways of working. Has, has there been any drastic changes basically? 

Yeah, I think, yes. At least when, when I joined like 2000, the 2011, January, yeah, just Quintus 10 year journey. So I'm in the wind turbine was the, it was not that demand in terms of pressors that. Okay, let me put it this way, made on industrialization in a period during shooting that the levelized cost of hour defaults.

So that requires a lot of Streamlining and innovation in production, everywhere, transport and design but also the size after bias, quiet, fast changer. And that requires more development of processes that how well we develop it and how ensuring that there is a stability in the process. A lot of people lose and has happened in the industry.

Yep. Okay. That's that's good to know. 

I could see, because I came from another industry, so I could see that these are changes that are happening, but I don't think last few years, if somebody will join, have joined the industry, they may not see that because this industries very well it's the blind is on the top actually.

Okay. So there is. There are some changes that's happened in the last 10 years. But 

just send it in the terms of improvement and maybe I'll, I, I will, I would not see myself, like I was the time and the changes that are happening. I wasn't an engineer actually. So, of course you, you experienced all that.

The processes are some more process changes that happen. Then now I would say that the something dramatic on science or technology actually, because that's the continuous improvement. Yes. The industry learned a lot from the car industry, the industry isn't part of 

Okay. Interesting. So which are just too, I don't know.They, those who have walked around a very big structure and big bonds, they understand, but if those were working the consumer kind of products it's a little bit hard. Because this industry is not that you are changing something just like anomaly very fast. So it's like you make a decision to make a turbine.

And then there's a lot of work involved in the pre scoping park. Then you have a conceptual design. Then you have a quite detailed design, then you have a quite long validation phase. You have a prototype, you're validating your bill of material. Everything is very mature products and starts. And then you ensure all the quality and everything.

So because it's it's yeah. Imagine like yes, it's, it's Sometime I when I talked to some of my personal friends who are not working in a biggest structure, Victor ones, it's a little bit hard to understand that how well and how sometime those who are not used to working on a big. Component industry.

They might also see a very hard journey. So yeah, because you need to have a very strong discipline to ensure that the quality and okay. That's, that's good to know. I mean, so, I mean so when, when you are working in, in these scenarios w what would he say? Keeping track of the time as well.

Yeah. And I think I'll repeat probably what I said, because I was, I, when I joined industry, I was quite experienced. I had more than 10 year experience. Before, when I joined the industry but something I found different was I think I talked about a lot of terminologies, so busting.

Yeah. As electrical engineer. I remember the first day someone say, yeah, you know the, yeah, the hub height for this one is this, this one it is. And I said, okay. So because you, when you are outside industry for you, it's just a, you look for the function actually, when you are in Academy, name is not that important.

So that, that was one thing I found. A lot of terminologies was involved, but the other side I found that people are very, very in wind industry. One thing I realized people are very humble and hands on it. And that was very helpful. So if you asked somebody, nobody asked him nobody feel that you are stupid, I'm sorry for the language.

So basically, yeah. Yeah. People are very open to talk about and share the knowledge. And then this, this is one of them. Big thing. I found the difference part actually that the people are a lot of passionate about this. So same thing I am doing up, my whole purpose is yeah, let's get people in the wind actually, and then make this up on it better.

Conclusion

Any time after I end this live session. So on that note, thank you very much and have a good day. 

This is a transcript of the BA Video Series Linkedin Live webinar on WIND ENERGY PROJECTS

You can also listen to this video via the PODCAST

If you are a business analyst interested in accessing more of these topics, then join the BA Video Series now! and sign up to the product updates: www.bavideoseries.com

Also checkout the Sustainability project discussion here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/sustainability-projects-vijay-nair-tp-mba-/