MMI Engineering has released version 2.0 of its offshore wind farm analysis software WEP-View (Wind Energy Potential – View). This software has been developed as a response to an industry demand for a tool to assess the electricity and revenue generation potential in an offshore wind farm.
WEP-View helps developers optimize the layout of a wind farm to maximize the power output and profit potential. Investors can use this tool to find out the different probability levels of electricity generation for a specific wind farm site. Dr. Alok Jha, an Associate of MMI , who architected the product, says, “Our vision is to develop a tool that would serve as the central decision making tool for Offshore Wind farm stakeholders, with the tool being grounded in sound technical models for the key parameters that help define the final metric of interest, which is the total power output from a wind farm.”
WEP-View is built as a Microsoft Excel® tool, to offer convenience and familiarity to users, with a back-end efficient numerical engine with the capacity for analysis of large wind input files for an entire wind farm. WEP-View takes the specification of wind speed and direction, turbine dimensions, and farm characteristics, then calculates wind data, power generated by the wind farm including wake effects (shielding effects of turbines on each other), and power available for sales, including transmission loss effects. Using input price per Megawatt hour, the tool calculates the revenue generation based on the power available for sale.
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) licenses WEP-View from MMI Engineering, with the intent to use the tool to assess value of offshore leases for wind farm development. On the benefits of the tool, Dan Dolan, a Principal at MMI, says, “Having been in the Offshore Wind industry for several years now, I believe the industry needs an objective framework for assessing likely levels of electricity that can be generated in a wind farm, and optimize the layout of a limited number of turbines in a farm to maximize the power generation capabilities in an offshore environment.”
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Press release, January 24, 2013; Image: mmiengineering