Advanced wind turbines turn to ac drive technology 20 August 2012

Doncaster-based electrical engineering company HS Harbon & Sons has standardised on ac drives from Control Techniques for its new advanced wind turbines.

Technical director Dave Harbon says the company's new turbine is capable of a return on investment (ROI) in just four years.

Harbon went into partnership with local businessman Richard Crowe to set up Harbon Wind Turbines, with a goal of designing an advanced concept turbine to outperform established products.

Now the company has created and tested a 60kW HWT60 variable speed wind turbine and has already taken its first orders.

"The HWT60 is designed to optimise the blade power output by changing rotor speed to reflect changing wind conditions," explains Harbon.

"This is why we use a variable speed drive in regeneration mode to return the generated power to the mains grid. We use Control Techniques' drives, because their efficiency, considerable programming capability and communications give us the precise control that we need."

Research carried out by Harbon Wind Turbines has shown that the efficiency of the turbine is significantly improved by the ability to change the rotor speed. Each turbine is fitted with four ac drives: two small 0.5kW Unidrive SP drives at the top of the tower, one controlling yaw and the other the hydraulics for the braking system (and also acting as an interface to transmit inputs on wind speed, temperature, rotor shaft rpm and vibration to the main drive); and two 75kW Unidrive SP drives at the base of the tower, working in regenerative mode, feeding ac power back to the grid.

Brian Tinham

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Nidec Control Techniques Ltd

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