Vietnam, 12th October 2022 — ONYX Insight, the independent engineering and data analytics consultancy for the global wind industry, has begun work on its first offshore wind project in Vietnam, in partnership with Korean energy investment manager ST International (formerly Samtan Co. Ltd). A five-year contract to use ONYX’s AI HUB digital O&M platform for predictive maintenance and identifying lost energy issues will initially cover 48MW of offshore wind capacity (nameplate 50.4MW).
ST International (STI) is a South Korean energy company that is expanding its renewable energy project footprint adjacent to its work in the coal industry. The Korea-Tra Vinh Wind Power No.1 (TWPC) intertidal wind farm, located in Vietnam’s Tra Vinh province, is its first investment in Vietnam — which it undertook alongside Climate Investor One (CIO), a blended finance facility delivering renewable energy infrastructure projects in emerging markets.
Vietnam’s natural wind capacity is vast, with 3000 kilometres of coastline and consistently fast windspeeds, from 5.5 to 7.3 m/s. The biggest opportunity for large-scale wind power generation lies offshore: World Bank estimates Vietnam’s offshore wind potential as ranging up to 500 gigawatts. With realising that potential forming a key part of the government’s National Power Development Plan 8 (NPDP8), the country is set to become a leader in the offshore energy industry.
ST International progressively recognises that the quality of that expansion is as important as its volume, and have partnered with ONYX to collaborate on enabling a scale-up of their O&M predictive maintenance strategy that will both minimise O&M costs while maximising energy availability from the get-go. The advanced sensing and analytics solutions provided by ONYX, alongside its practical engineering expertise, will be key to ensuring maximal profitability, longevity, and output.
Condition monitoring systems enable the predictive maintenance of assets, detecting and preventing minor faults from developing into catastrophic failures, saving millions. They can also be used to identify lost energy issues, such as yaw misalignment and deteriorating drivetrains, which can drastically hamper the output of a turbine. AI HUB centralises the data gathered from these issues and processes them into workable solutions.
Jihwan Oh, Business Development Manager at ONYX Insight, said: “Data analysis is as important as root cause analysis. Our monitoring systems don’t just find out what’s wrong with individual turbines; they provide an actionable plan to fix those issues. We’re delighted that TWPC has committed to a long-term AI HUB subscription, which is a linked-up digital platform that connects wind turbine hardware and software in an intuitive way. We’re very excited to work on more projects in Vietnam, and to bring AI HUB elsewhere in the East Asia market.”
Kim Junchul, Senior Manager – Renewable Energy Team / Development at ST International, said: “In our process to select a digital partner for the wind farm, there were several other digital O&M companies from Europe and Asia in the running — but we were particularly impressed by ONYX’s offering. As we continue to expand our renewables portfolio, we are fully taking stock of the profitability and efficiency that digitalisation can bring.”
