How Digital Twins Enhance Wind Turbine Performance

Wind turbines are a key piece of the green energy puzzle, but managing them can be challenging. These are expensive pieces of machinery, and getting as much value out of them as possible is crucial to push the world toward renewable power. Digital twins can help.

A digital twin consists of a virtual model of a real wind turbine that uses technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) to update the recreation in real time. Because this digital representation reflects up-to-date, real-world data, it’s a useful monitoring and simulation tool. Wind farm operators can use such insights to enhance turbine maintenance in several ways.

Digital Twin Enhancement Abilities

#1: Enabling Timely Maintenance

Proactive maintenance is one of the most helpful applications of digital twins for wind turbines. Over time, regular wear and tear make turbines less efficient, but conventional upkeep strategies often fail to prevent these performance drops. Manual inspections are slow and don’t catch subtle signs, and planned downtime from repairs leads to significant periods of lost potential.

Digital twins enable more timely repairs by detecting subtle issues through IoT sensors. The twin can highlight emerging signs of disrepair before they’re outwardly noticeable, without a time-consuming field visit. Some applications can even predict failures before they occur, which leads to lower downtime and longer life spans for these crucial machines.

Using digital twins to inspect turbines also means health checks don’t require any planned downtime. As a result, wind farms can generate more electricity over a longer period, making zero-emissions energy more accessible.

#2: Uncovering Inefficiencies

Similarly, digital twins can reveal operational bottlenecks and other issues with turbine performance. Sometimes, a machine may be in good condition, but the way it runs doesn’t produce ideal results. Digital twins can uncover these instances to enable faster fixes.

A twin may reveal that turbine performance drops at certain times or months. Alternatively, it could show that those at a certain angle perform better than others. Wind farm operators can use these insights to enhance power production.

Digital twins can also simulate potential changes so operators can determine the optimal solution to these inefficiencies. That way, electricity companies can tweak their operations to produce more power or drive higher efficiency without time-consuming real-world trial and error.

#3: Informing Turbine Expansion Projects

In addition to optimizing existing wind farms, digital twins can help organizations determine the best way to manage future installations. The world is on track to add 1,100 gigawatts of wind power capacity by 2030, but not all expansion is equally beneficial. Digital twins can ensure this rollout produces the greatest possible gains.

Virtual replicas of existing farms can reveal which conditions are most conducive to high output and efficient generation. It can also reveal the operational and maintenance strategies that have worked the best for older installations.

Reviewing all this data makes it easier to determine which new locations make the most sense for a wind farm. Operators will also be able to identify the best ways to manage their new installations, given how things have worked for older ones.

#4: Optimizing Future Turbine Design

Digital twins can assist turbine manufacturers in improving their product designs, too. Real-world performance data will display common inefficiencies, maintenance issues, or other opportunities for improvement. Companies can also simulate design changes in a digital twin to determine how a redesign might perform without real-world testing.

Manufacturers and other sectors have used digital twins this way and seen impressive results. In some cases, digital twins have cut development times by up to 50 percent, and some products that begin as digital twins showcase 25 percent fewer quality issues after production.

Changes like this are crucial to maximizing wind power’s potential. As turbine technology improves through digital twins, renewable energy will become increasingly valuable, driving further adoption. Such a shift is essential in the fight against climate change.

#5: De-Risking Supply Chains

Turbine manufacturers can also use digital twins to optimize their supply chains. This is a common use case for digital twins among general manufacturers, and applying it to wind turbines could result in more cost-effective equipment.

A digital replica of the supply chain can help manufacturers identify opportunities to avoid risk, find ideal suppliers, respond to incoming disruptions, and more. As a result, this technology has helped some reduce delays and downtime by between 50 percent and 80 percent, in addition to cost savings of up to 6 percent through better decision-making.

Reducing disruption and costs in the turbine supply chain can lead to faster production and more affordable hardware. As a result, expanding wind farms will become a more efficient and cost-effective process, encouraging more rapid renewable electricity growth. Supply chain digital twins may also help crack down on counterfeit parts or similar risks to ensure all equipment works as intended.

Wind Turbines Need Digital Twins

Wind turbines must improve to support a future reliant on clean energy. Digital twins may not be the only step in achieving this end, but they are a substantial asset. Energy companies must recognize and act on this potential today and foster a cleaner, more cost-effective tomorrow.