logo
Article

Power converter blamed for problems with Scituate turbine

The Patriot Ledger|Jessica Trufant |August 8, 2014
MassachusettsGeneral

Sumul Shah of Scituate Wind LLC told selectmen this week that the wind turbine is failing to synchronize with National Grid’s power grid. So while the turbine ramps up and can produce energy when turned on, it has been offline since June 22.


SCITUATE – After weeks of software troubleshooting and testing proved fruitless, owners of the 390-foot-tall wind turbine on the Driftway have resorted to replacing the power converter in the now-motionless machine.

Sumul Shah of Scituate Wind LLC – a partnership between Palmer Capital Corp. and Solaya Energy – told selectmen this week that the wind turbine is failing to synchronize with National Grid’s power grid. So while the turbine ramps up and can produce energy when turned on, it has been offline since June 22.

“It continues to trip on some error on the grid,” Shah said. “There’s some problem with reading how the grid is reacting.”

Gordon Deane, president of Palmer Capital Corp., said last week that the down time costs about …

... more [truncated due to possible copyright]

SCITUATE – After weeks of software troubleshooting and testing proved fruitless, owners of the 390-foot-tall wind turbine on the Driftway have resorted to replacing the power converter in the now-motionless machine.

Sumul Shah of Scituate Wind LLC – a partnership between Palmer Capital Corp. and Solaya Energy – told selectmen this week that the wind turbine is failing to synchronize with National Grid’s power grid. So while the turbine ramps up and can produce energy when turned on, it has been offline since June 22.

“It continues to trip on some error on the grid,” Shah said. “There’s some problem with reading how the grid is reacting.”

Gordon Deane, president of Palmer Capital Corp., said last week that the down time costs about $1,380 per day, or $57,960 total as of today.

Shah said the turbine’s three fuses failed in June, resulting in the failure of the original power converter. The turbine operator replaced the converter, but the machine still could not connect to the grid – prompting them to believe there is something wrong with the replacement converter.

“The converter we put in may have been damaged either in transport to us, or in the process of installing the new converter,” Shah said. “All signs lead to that.”

The turbine has not produced any electricity since June 22, according to Power Dash, a website that records the turbine’s energy production. It was also offline for more than two weeks in May because of an electrical issue.

The Chinese company Sinovel Wind Group Co. Ltd. manufactured the turbine.

Shah said the operator started removing the replacement converter this week, a process which should only take a few days.

Al Bangert, former department of public works director, said the town’s contract with Scituate Wind LLC calls for a minimum production of 3 million kilowatt-hours per year. If the turbine fails to meet that requirement, Scituate Wind must pay the town 6 cents for each missed kilowatt-hour.


Source:http://scituate.wickedlocal.c…

Share this post
Follow Us
RSS:XMLAtomJSON
Donate
Donate
Stay Updated

We respect your privacy and never share your contact information. | LEGAL NOTICES

Contact Us

WindAction.org
Lisa Linowes, Executive Director
phone: 603.838.6588

Email contact

General Copyright Statement: Most of the sourced material posted to WindAction.org is posted according to the Fair Use doctrine of copyright law for non-commercial news reporting, education and discussion purposes. Some articles we only show excerpts, and provide links to the original published material. Any article will be removed by request from copyright owner, please send takedown requests to: info@windaction.org

© 2024 INDUSTRIAL WIND ACTION GROUP CORP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WEBSITE GENEROUSLY DONATED BY PARKERHILL TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION