iSpin is like a contact lens for your wind turbine, providing a whole new level of transparency for turbine productivity.

iSpin is able to measure parameters at the nacelle which until now have been difficult or impossible to accurately measure.

The power of iSpin in detail

The following further abilities of iSpin allow uniquely deep and accurate wind condition insights.
For details on each of these features and background documents please visit our Knowledge centre

With iSpin you can monitor if the air density corrected power curve declines or improves 

You can monitor and correct yaw misalignments to get more revenues and lower turbine loads 

Observe turbulence intensity allowing you to make informed choices between power production and reduced turbine loads.

Monitor flow inclinations

Use the accurate iSpin wind data as a reliable basis for your operation strategy, for repowering or expanding your wind park

Compare original wind assessment with actual wind conditions in all wind sectors

Turn your turbine into a virtual wind met mast

References

Introducing a new technology

The three ultrasonic iSpin sensors measure the wind directly at the spinner, in front of the rotor, where the measurements are undisturbed by rotor turbulence. In contrast, today wind turbine wind sensors all measure in the turbulence behind the rotor.

With the innovative spinner anemometer technology, wind conditions can be measured more accurately than ever before.

Benefit from this new technology for more productivity, deeper insights and a longer life for your turbine for a better return on investment.

Accurate data in all wind sectors

The spinner anemometer iSpin is superior to other technologies when carrying out 360° wind measurement.
The iSpin produces high precision power curves under all conditions. The images below show power curve data of the same wind turbine from a wind farm where the nacelle anemometer, a nacelle LiDAR, a met mast and the iSpin recorded the wind speed data from all wind sectors. Only the iSpin was undisturbed by terrain effects and wakes from the other turbines in the wind farm.

iSpin accurately measures these 8 parameters

• Wind speed hitting the turbine
• All flow inclinations (including the horizontal flow inclination – the yaw misalignment)
• Free wind speed
• Turbulence intensity
• Rotor speed and position
• Nacelle position
• Air pressure (in order to determine the air density)
• Temperature (in order to determine the air density)

In addition, the Power Production can be measured when analysing the SCADA data.

Key findings

Inaccuracy of wind measurement data leads to loss of production

The iSpin technology can measure parameters which until now have been difficult or impossible to measure with the current wind measurement equipment for wind turbines which has led to yaw misalignment and therefore a loss of production.

ROMO Wind distinguishes between static – or average – yaw misalignments and dynamic yaw misalignments. The latter is the standard deviation on the static yaw misalignment.

Conventional anemometers mounted behind the rotor on the wind turbine nacelle housing lead to inadequacy of data, because they measure the wind after it already passed through, where it is disturbed by the rotor, which makes accurate wind measurement impossible.

The turbulences created by the rotor and the wind flowing around the nacelle is unpredictable, making reliable performance monitoring and creation of power curves almost impossible, which is why it cannot be fully corrected.
This leads to the fundamental dilemma of yaw misalignment and significant production loss, which is why iSpin measures the wind in front of the spinner, where it hits the turbine first.

Static yaw misalignments are very frequent: ROMO Wind’s measurements on a large number of randomly selected wind turbines show that more than half of all wind turbines demonstrate a significant static (average) yaw misalignments.

The correlation between nacelle misalignment and loss of production is demonstrated in the table below. The results are proven by DNV GL calculations and the ROMO Wind test series. This statistic is updated regularly.

Why do static yaw misalignments occur so often?

The high prevalence of yaw misalignments is of course not the result of the turbine manufacturers or service teams doing a bad job on the wind turbines. The key reason is that the standard equipment on wind turbines today cannot detect yaw misalignments. The technologies for detecting these problems only became commercially available in recent years – not least because of the iSpin technology.

There seem to be three main reasons why turbines may present yaw misalignments:

1. Wind direction sensor issues
   If the wind sensor is mounted incorrectly by even a few millimetres, it will have severe consequences on the alignment
2. Wind farm site conditions
   The off-set defined by the turbine manufacturer has not been adjusted to the installation site’s local conditions, causing a potentially large static yaw misalignment
3.  New disturbances of the wind flow over the nacelle roof
   If the nacelle sensors are moved to another position on the nacelle roof or other equipment is mounted on the roof (e.g. aviation lights, nacelle LiDARs, etc.), they can severely affect the wind flow around the nacelle, having a negative impact on the function and calibration of the nacelle wind sensor measurements and hence on the turbine control.

Below: An example of the necessity of an accurate adjustment of wind sensors.

For further details and background documents please visit our Knowledge centre.

If you do not find what you are looking for, please do not hesitate to contact us for help at info@romowind.com and we will be glad to answer your questions.