Power Performance Assessment of the Tidal Turbine Sabella D10 Following IEC62600-200

Abstract

Recently, the tidal turbine Sabella D10 has been installed in the Fromveur Passage, off Ushant Island, in France. Sabella D10 is a 1 MW tidal turbine fully submerged and laid on the seabed with a horizontal axis and 6 blades. It is the first French tidal turbine producing electricity and connected to the electrical network. As tidal turbines are emerging technologies, the demonstration of the power performance in real conditions is vital for designers. Currently, few full scale prototypes have been tested at sea and even less have been integrated into the electricity grid. Due to this context, the standard IEC62600-200 Electricity producing tidal energy converter - power performance assessment has been applied only on a limited number of turbines and, as a consequence, industrials have a limited feedback on the use of the IEC62600-200. The aim of this paper is to detail the IEC62600-200 requirements for the power performance assessment, and the application case on the tidal turbine Sabella D10. The technical specification IEC62600-200 was issued in 2013 and describes the procedure for the power performance assessment of the tidal converters. This technical specification gives requirements for the site and test conditions, the measurement procedures and their exploitation to obtain the power curves. Finally, the reporting format of the results, is detailed to provide a complete document to the certification body. In the framework of the project Sabella D10, funded by ADEME, the power curves of the tidal turbine prototype D10 of Sabella have been established in cooperation with Sabella and Bureau Veritas according to IEC62600-200. They worked together for the interpretation of the technical specification, the exploitation of the measurements and the presentation of the results. The global procedure of IEC has been followed however some adaptations have been made to take into account the Sabella D10 specifics and site characteristics. Indeed, the Sabella D10 project started before the IEC62600-200 publication and some requirements have not been anticipated at the beginning of the project. The first objective of this analysis is to challenge the IEC methodology with an analysis of a real set of production data and to demonstrate the applicability of the technical specification. Additionally, the assumptions and the deviation with the IEC will be presented and some improvements of the standard will be proposed in conclusion.