Wind Certification IEC 61400

Wind Certification IEC 61400

The following info is intended to test the feasibility of a structure / organization able to get the certification of wind turbines and wind farms to the standard required.

The evaluation cautionary provides the possibility of, initially, 5 certifications of turbines and many of wind sites to move to a regime with a dozen / year of certifications trubine and as many of sites.

The overall business can range from 1 to 2 million euro at the beginning up to 3 million to 4 million / year when fully operational. This for at least 5 years.

Organization

The approach for this type of certification is:

Installation of measuring instruments in site

  • Wind and meteorological tower (wind met tower)
  • Weather Sensors
  • Sensors V/I/ W and S
  • Strain gauges, accelerometers
  • Remote installation of Data (Internet / GPRS / UMTS)

Product certification according to:

  • Analysis of the data received from the site
  • Verification of the project (design evaluation)

Power performance evaluation (IEC 61400-12-1)

First step: the fundamental one to evaluate the turbine performances.

Wind turbineType testing (IEC 61400-2)

Second step, using results of first step, adding other tests to comply with the entire requirements of the standard for testing type.

Figure 1 - Elements of type testing (per IEC WT01 and IEC 61400-2)

Figure 1 – Elements of type testing (per IEC WT01 and IEC 61400-2)

Wind turbines: Conformity testing and certification (IEC 61400-22)

Third step. The complete certification of a wind turbine

Certification

Figure 2 - Modules of type certification

Figure 2 – Modules of type certification

The certification must be made by an international Operating body that shall be accredited by a national or international accreditation body that has been internationally evaluated.

The extent of certification

An evaluation results in one of the following:

  1. type certification;
  2. project certification;
  3. component certification; or
  4. prototype certification.

The purpose of type certification is to confirm that the wind turbine type is designed ,documented and manufactured in conformity with design assumptions, specific standards and other technical requirements
design basis evaluation;

  • wind turbine design evaluation;
  • type testing;
  • manufacturing evaluation; and
  • final evaluation;

and the optional modules:

  • foundation design evaluation;
  • foundation manufacturing evaluation; and
  • type characteristic measurements.

A type certificate is issued for a wind turbine designed and evaluated for conformance with the technical requirements of this standard and IEC 61400-1, IEC 61400-2 or IEC 61400-3, on the basis of the completeness and correctness of a final evaluation report.

Customer site.

At the beginning of aur activity we think to use a site made available by the customer. In this case it is necessary to perform a site calibration.

The site calibration can be avoided if the requirements are verified in Annex B of the standard. The requirements are essentially the layout of the site and terrain.

The site calibration can be done before installing the turbine (or removing any turbine already installed) with two towers of measurement: one that will be installed on the site where you will perform the environmental measures (speed and direction of the wind and weather conditions) and a second in the place where the turbine will be installed.

If the soil is substantially flat and there are no obstacles such as trees and buildings, normally a site calibration is not required. We must, however, assess the situation.

The working group is able to perform the calibration of the site or make a rating of the requirements of Annex B.

Certification process

The certification process is briefly described below

  1. Towers and turbines are designed and installed by and at the expense of the manufacturer of the turbines or on their site;
  2. THE testing laboratory , with the characteristics required by the accreditation standards, is responsible for installing, monitoring and to conduct the certification tests required;

The activities to be performed, the overall organization, the division of labor to achieve the purpose of this report are set out as follows.