Siemens has been awarded a long-term service contract for the Lower Snake River wind farm, located near Pomeroy, Garfield County, in Washington State.
The customer is Bellevue, Wash.-based Puget Sound Energy. Completed in early 2012, the Lower Snake River project comprises 149 SWT-2.3-101 wind turbines that produce up to 343 MW of renewable energy. On average, says Siemens, the facility generates enough electricity to power 82,000 average U.S. homes.
The turbines have been serviced and maintained by Siemens since they began commercial operation in 2012. Under the terms of the new agreement, Siemens will provide long-term service and maintenance for an additional 10 years and install the company’s Power Boost function and High Wind Ride Through (HWRT) turbine modernization products to all 149 units.
Siemens says its Power Boost functionality increases power production of a turbine by raising the output limitation under specific operating conditions. Depending on site conditions, the annual energy production can be increased by up to 4%, the company adds.
Part of the Siemens Digital Services for Energy offerings, the digitally driven HWRT is designed to prevent the wind turbine from shutting down immediately as wind speeds reach above 25 m/s. Siemens says this leads to enhanced grid stability and replaces the high-wind, fixed-threshold shutdown with an intelligent, load-based reduction in output power to help avoid shutdown during high winds.
Siemens says it currently provides service and maintenance for more than 4,000 installed wind turbines in the Americas region and more than 10,000 globally for a combined generating capacity of over 25 GW.
Photo courtesy of Siemens: Servicing the 300 NW Tarfaya wind farm in Morocco
