EDP Renewables will use GE’s Wind PowerUp to increase the power output of 402 GE 1.5-77 wind turbines located at five U.S. wind farms. PowerUp is a customized software-enabled platform that increases a wind farm’s output.
By using PowerUp, EDPR is expected to increase power, generating more than 420,000 MWh of additional energy each year, which would provide the equivalent power used by 33,000 average U.S. homes. The contract model between GE and EDPR is structured to minimize risk while enabling new technologies to be quickly added to the EDPR fleet as they are developed in the coming years.
The wind farms that will be installing PowerUp are Blue Canyon V wind farm in Oklahoma, the Meadow Lake III wind farm in Indiana and the Top Crop I, Top Crop II and Railsplitter wind farms in Illinois. When PowerUp is activated, a GE software program performs a complete before and after wind farm power performance analysis, validating the performance improvement. By adjusting performance dials, including speed, torque, pitch, aerodynamics, and turbine controls, PowerUp is able to improve the power output of each unit and the overall wind farm.
