The start of 2020 marked the completion of the “WindTwin” project for Agility3. “WindTwin” was a 30-month project funded by Innovate UK. The aims of the project were to develop an innovative solution for the preventive and predictive maintenance of wind turbines based on a combined data and physics-based hybrid twin solution. We worked on the project with a consortium of project partners including Brunel University London, Dashboard Ltd, ESI Group, and TWI Ltd. Alongside the consortium there was also a board of industry advisors whose support, insight and domain knowledge were invaluable to the project.
To showcase the achievements from the first phase of the project, the consortium held a “WindTwin” Open Day on the 28th January at the Headquarters of TWI in Cambridge with over 60 delegates in attendance from the wind sector. During the day talks were given by key speakers from the Renewable Energy sector as well as project partners which served to explore the background of the project and the outcomes of it. Project partners each presented on the various technologies and methodologies that were used in developing the “WindTwin” solution. For Agility3, we focused on how we were able to effectively communicate the complex data coming from the Wind Turbines in the form of a realistic 3D visualisation which is intuitive and easy to use and understand, providing Wind Farm operators with an immediate indication of asset status and a visual indication of any issues that require attention.
A full demonstration of “WindTwin” was provided before the day was capped off with a “Beyond the WindTwin” session looking at the opportunities and plans to further develop the solution for additional value to the wind sector as well as other industries.
This phase of “WindTwin” has been a great project with a very interesting and valuable use case. We have enjoyed working on it with our project partners and look forward to hopefully developing it further and have it enable and support efficient and cost-effective maintenance of Wind Farms.
This blog has been written by Louis Drakes, Business Coordinator at Agility3. For more information, please contact louis.drakes@agility3.co.uk or call on (+44) 01438 488066.