In a press release on friday, EU-funded project RiaSoR II declared its goal of improving the reliability of wave and tidal energy converters (WEC/TEC). In this the second phase of the RIASOR project, focus will be to stabilize the current wecs/tecs in order to increase the investment in the marine energy industry by both the public and the private sector.
Building on the success of Phase 1 of the Reliability in a Sea of Risk (RiaSoR) project, which developed a theoretical reliability assessment guideline for WECs and TECs, Phase 2 aims to enable developers to validate their findings and establish a practical, condition-based monitoring platform to prepare for future arrays, where big data handling and processing will be vital to drive down operational expenditure.
“Reliability testing is tough to do in the sea. RiaSoR 2 is about establishing a methodology and testing programme so we can gather data between device installation through to MTTF (mean time to failure). The instrumentation, condition monitoring methodology applied with Variation Mode and Effect Analysis (VMEA) methodology used in other more mature sectors such as the automotive and aerospace industry will be adapted in the RiaSoR project for the ocean energy sector and will provide valuable insight into prototype design development”, explains Elaine Buck, EMEC’s Technical Manager.
Johannes Hüffmeier, RISE adds:
“Earlier this year, the RiaSoR 2 consortium held a workshop in Stockholm which resulted in an appropriate aim and scope being developed for the monitoring guideline. We discussed the methods that are suitable to derive cost-efficient monitoring systems based on key performance indicators. In the workshop we had a useful brainstorming session around requirements on sensors, system architecture and devices. Additionally, the project will be making a report on condition-based monitoring and sensing techniques for ocean energy devices available shortly.”