Optimizing renewable energy: The power of asset performance
In the renewable energy sector, any interruption in energy production—whether from wind turbines or solar inverters—directly affects operational efficiency and revenue. Understanding and minimizing these interruptions is crucial for asset managers. Kraken now offers a powerful solution to tackle these challenges head-on.
Addressing core challenges
Asset Performance management is designed to help renewable energy asset managers analyze and understand production losses caused by site incidents and operational disruptions. By leveraging SCADA and alarm log data, the system provides clean and corrected device timelines that can form the basis for contractual availability calculations. The tool is fully automated, yet flexible enough to allow asset managers to dive deep into the data, enabling effective analysis and response.
Performing production assessments can be complex and time-consuming. Kraken’s Asset Performance tool simplifies this process, enabling managers to quickly gather reliable data on the causes of downtime, ultimately reducing losses and increasing revenue. Unlike other tools that rely solely on algorithms and cross-referencing multiple systems, Kraken empowers operators to enrich and refine raw data with insights from their entire team. This collaborative approach ensures that asset managers fully understand the causes of performance issues, rather than relying solely on SCADA data, which can sometimes be inaccurate or misleading.
User-made corrections to device data are fully tracked, ensuring accountability and integrity. Changes can also be easily undone or amended as required, making this a scalable and flexible solution. The tool allows managers to put machine failures into the financial context of their wind or solar farm’s operations.
Key features of Asset Performance
Kraken’s Asset Performance tool offers several features that help asset managers analyze, prepare for, and reduce downtime incidents. These include:
| Feature | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Managing multiple sites on one dashboard: | Users can easily switch between different sites, including solar and wind, on a single platform. |
| 2 | Editing alerts at scale: | Events can be bulk reallocated with just a click, thanks to a simple drag-and-drop feature. |
| 3 | Event categorization: | Clear and color-coded categories make it easy to analyze data in various ways. |
| 4 | Flexible viewing options: | Users can view turbine events as a list or on a timeline, providing different perspectives for analysis. |
| 5 | Event filtering: | Data can be filtered based on turbines, event codes, contractual categories, and components. Filters can be saved for quick access to frequently used views. |
| 6 | Editing, merging, and splitting events: | Users can make changes to specific fields and apply overrides as needed. |
| 7 | Reversible interactions: | Events can be restored to their original state, ensuring flexibility and accuracy. |
| 8 | Contextualizing event data with metrics: | Metrics like active power, potential power, and wind speed can be displayed alongside event timelines, varying by the technology type of the site. |
| 9 | Exporting user corrections: | Reclassified timelines and user corrections can be automatically exported in various formats to different destinations. |
| 10 | Data visualization: | KPIs can be visualized alongside device timelines and real-time metric graphs, offering a comprehensive view of asset performance. |
| 11 | Integration with Kraken software: | The tool seamlessly integrates with other Kraken modules, providing combined functionality in a single set of dashboards. |
Laurent Valadares, Global Head of Cloud Operations at EDF Renewables, highlights the importance of such tools: “Rapid and precise data analysis is fundamental to improving the performance of our wind turbine fleet, particularly as we expand our portfolio. Performing production assessments on all of our turbines is a huge challenge. In partnership with Kraken, we have a scalable system that can delve deeper into the relationships between the various causes of lost production and, ultimately, increase revenue.”
Streamlined onboarding for seamless integration
Kraken’s team has extensive experience integrating their tools with a diverse range of client systems, ensuring that the Asset Performance tool fits seamlessly into existing workflows. New deployments begin with an assessment to determine how the tool will integrate with a client’s current systems. Considerations include:
Data Sources: Kraken has experience with a wide range of data sources, converting them into a common format based on industry standards like IEC 61400-25.
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Data Ingestion Frequency: The tool can operate dynamically (event-driven) or on a scheduled basis, depending on client needs.
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Static Data Management: Static data, such as lists of sites and turbines, can be sourced automatically or manually configured, depending on how frequently it changes.
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Exporting Reclassified Timelines: Kraken offers a variety of “out-of-the-box” export formats and destinations, and can develop custom pipelines to meet specific client needs.
Once deployment begins, Kraken involves clients in user testing early on to identify bugs, evaluate usability, gather feedback, and validate assumptions. This ensures that the final product aligns with user expectations and delivers a positive experience.
What’s next for Asset Performance?
Kraken continually expands the functionality of its Asset Performance tool, driven by client feedback and industry needs. Upcoming features include:
User Event Mode: This new mode will help address situations where SCADA event data is unreliable. It allows user-made changes to persist, even if raw data changes, and enables users to define events across multiple devices simultaneously.
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Support for Additional Technologies: Kraken is expanding the tool’s capabilities to include a broader range of renewable technologies, such as battery storage.
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Improved KPI Calculation: Updated KPIs will be available immediately following changes to device timelines, making it easier for users to see the reasons for downtime periods alongside real-time power and environmental metrics.
Kraken's Asset Performance tool offers a comprehensive solution for renewable energy asset managers, enabling them to optimize their operations, reduce downtime, and enhance profitability.