WindESCo Swarm™ to unlock 3-5% annual energy production gains for 306MW Milford wind farm in first-of-its-kind deployment
Boston, MA, USA: 7th December 2021 – Pioneering wind asset optimization innovator WindESCo has closed a pre-launch deal with Boston-based renewable energy developer, owner and operator Longroad Energy to deploy its market-leading swarm optimization technology onto Longroad’s 306 MW Milford Wind project in Beaver County, Utah.
In the first deal of its kind for WindESCo Swarm™ , which launched in October this year, the solution will optimize Milford Wind’s annual energy production (AEP) across the entire fleet, rather than individual turbines, unlocking site-wide AEP gains of 3-5% for their 165 GE and Clipper turbines.
WindESCo Swarm™ is the wind industry’s first commercial, off-the-shelf solution for targeted, fleet-wide wind optimization. The technology enables turbines to cooperatively adjust positioning to eliminate wake interference between assets and boost production for the entire farm. For a 1GW wind plant, this translates to profit generation in excess of $20 million over a five-year period.
Longroad is a long-time customer and partner of WindESCo, having worked together to drive the wind asset optimization opportunity since 2018. With an impressive wind and solar energy portfolio tracking over 3GW of developed capacity, Longroad’s ongoing relationship with WindESCo led to the first commercial installation of WindESCo Swarm™ .
Jeremy Law, Vice President Commercial Asset Management, Longroad Energy, commented: “Wind asset underperformance is a persistent economic problem for project owners and operators, with losses of potential power production measured in gigawatt hours annually. We have been working successfully with WindESCo for years to detect and correct this and boost our economic performance.
“To have the chance to explore the evolving solutions to the underperformance challenge is an exciting one. We’re thrilled to be the industry’s first adopters of WindESCo Swarm™ , and look forward to working with WindESCo’s experts to support our continued delivery of the attractive ROI our investors anticipate from Milford Wind.”
Blair Heavey, CEO, WindESCo, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Longroad for the first deployment of our pioneering Swarm solution. With the US wind industry under increasing pressure to scale up to meet net-zero demands, owners and operators cannot afford to lose power production potential from their existing projects. We are proud to be able to offer the industry the first market-ready, targeted fleet-wide solution to help them get the most out of their assets.
“We are committed to working closely with our customers and industry partners to establish proactive strategies for loss mitigation and revenue growth. Longroad’s partnership with us, and their early-adopter desire to deploy Swarm, illustrates the trust and expertise in our approach and the viability of our optimization solution. We look forward to sharing the results of the project and bringing the solution to the wider market.”
WindESCo Swarm™ is delivered on a technical level in strategic partnership with renewable components giant Phoenix Contact. Phoenix Contact develops and provides the solution’s ‘Swarm Edge’ hardware component, which is installed onto each turbine to provide centralized data collection and control, and enables WindESCo Swarm™ to unlock millions in revenue for wind asset owners.
To learn more about the technology and its benefits for investors, owners, and OEMs in the wind energy sector, WindESCo will be in attendance at ACP Clean Energy 2021 in Utah across December 7th and 8th. Please contact Lauren Howard at lhoward@windesco.com to arrange a meeting and find out more.
