Offshore Wind
Unlocking Offshore Wind’s Full Potential
Offshore wind has significant generation potential, positioning it as a key driver in the global transition to Net Zero.
With 500GW of offshore wind required by 2030¹, to reach global climate goals, the race is on.
Achieving this scale up means overcoming complex technical and operational challenges in the offshore wind sector, including:
Grid Forming
In contrast to the traditional grid which is powered by fossil fuels, a grid with renewable energy inputs faces reduced system inertia and associated stability challenges.
Grid forming provides a solution to this reduced system inertia, by actively establishing and regulating key electrical grid parameters – such as voltage and frequency – rather than just responding to them. This function allows offshore wind turbines to mimic traditional synchronous generators, providing stability and support to the grid.
Curtailment
As with all renewables, offshore wind is an intermittent power source. When there is a high level of energy generation at an offshore wind farm, the grid cannot always handle the full output.
Currently, the grid operator instructs the wind farm to limit production or turn off generation completely, thus limiting the amount of power that can be distributed to households and businesses. This problem is called curtailment and, in the UK, could reach costs of up to £3.5 billion by 2030², with the grid operator paying energy companies to curtail production.
Equally, offshore wind farms can experience periods of reduced energy production due to lack of wind resource. Harnessing and storing the excess energy from periods of surplus generation means that power can still be delivered to the grid during these periods to ensure a continuous, reliable supply.
Verlume’s Solution: Orah
We deliver intelligent energy management solutions purpose-built for offshore wind – helping drive the reliability, efficiency and performance of offshore wind production.
Orah is a grid-forming technology which assists with grid stability from offshore wind, mitigating risks of lost downtime and revenue and maximising energy output.
Orah is located on the seabed, right next to the point of generation meaning that the offshore wind operators retain the economic benefits before the metering point, rather than this storage being onshore where this becomes part of the grid infrastructure. We are also exploring situating the Verlume system within the monopile.
Integration of our system provides flexibility for operators within the offshore wind sector, allowing them to maximise profits by selling power to the grid when energy prices are higher.
Orah can:
- Help to stabilise grid power supply.
- Balance supply and demand, providing further economic benefits for the operator.
- Reduce curtailment, therefore making operations more efficient.
Case Study: World-First Offshore Wind Farm Configuration
Verlume is proud to be integrating its Orah system within OranjeWind. This project is a joint venture between RWE and TotalEnergies, which will see a world-first offshore wind farm configuration developed at the Dutch North Sea Hollandse Kust (West) VII site, with a range of world-leading technology integrations.
Orah will help to support operational efficiency of this 3TWh capacity wind farm, which is set to produce enough green electricity to power over one million Dutch homes. Orah assists in enabling autonomous operation for extended periods, with intelligent recharge technologies aligned to turbine availability and power offloading.
We look forward to continuing to work on this world-first project, with the offshore wind farm set to be fully operational in 2027 – Read case study here.
Talk to our Team!