Case Studies / Community Scale Wind Turbines

Eliminating electromagnetic noise interference to improve turbine performance.

FT702 ultrasonic wind sensor used on a Xzeres 51kw community scale wind turbine

FT702 on a Xzeres 51kw turbine

Background

Various customers in community scale wind turbines have approached us with similar issues and looking for a solution.

In smaller 30, 50, and 100kW turbines the nacelle is physically more compact than on utility scale turbines. This means that the wind sensor is located closer to the generator and gear box within the nacelle. Even though they were using ultrasonic sensors, customers were finding that electromagnetic noise emanating from the nacelle was interfering with the sensor’s performance. This caused the sensor to stop communicating with the turbine and the turbines stopped working altogether. They approached us to see if FT wind sensors could get around this issue.

Results

Customers found that since FT ultrasonic wind sensors are specifically designed for turbine control, they are highly resistant to electromagnetic interference and therefore had zero noise-related issues. In addition, the FT7 Series sensors produce a strong, resonating sound wave in a small space, providing a large signal that is easy to measure and so they did not suffer from acoustic interference either.