Anti hurricane generator set for a wind-farm in Dominican Republic

Our engineering team has designed and supplied emergency power to the Agua Clara wind farm in the Dominican Republic, a large power station capable of providing power to 250.000 citizens.

The wind farm, whose first phase has already come to a close, has 25 wind turbines, of two megawatts (MW) each, which represents an estimated annual production of 170.000 MW/hour.

With an initial investment of 100 million dollars, the project produces 50 MW of renewable power and the objective is to install up to 200 MW once the four phases of the project have concluded. Genesal Energy has designed and supplied a special generator set, adapted to face the complicated climate of the región of Monte Cristi, where the wind farm is located.

Agua Clara is in a hurricane-prone area, which means the wind farm’s infrastructure requires special equipment capable of facing this type of phenomena. In order to reduce the pressure exerted on a wind turbine by a potential hurricane, it must direct its nacelle and blades with the help of electric and hydraulic motors in such a way that the wind exerts the least force possible on the structure, avoiding harm.

One hundred percent personalized

At the windfarm, the client needed that, in the event of a hurricane or a cyclone and in consecuence, a mains failure, the wind turbines could position themselves correctly and avoid serious damage through the use o fan alternative source of energy. To achieve this, we manufactured a generator set capable of powering the auxiliary services which drive the positioning of the windmills.

The generator which we’ve designed is 100% customised and can be completely managed, controlled and monitored from the wind park’s control centre (SCADA). Inside the actual container, the local control system was installed, along with a PLC to manage communication with the farm’s SCADA through fiber optics, and a protection relay.

Genesal Energy ha diseñado y suministrado un equipo especial, adaptado para hacer frente a la complicada climatología de Monte Cristi.

The Genesal Energy unit will receive start-up and shut-down commands from the wind farm’s control centre and will start-up and energize a step-up transformer. From that momento onwards, the genset will power the whole wind farm and, therefore, the auxiliary systems needed to position each one of the wind turbines to avoid damages in the event of a hurricane.

To compensate the capacitance of the medium-voltage cable runs to the turbines, of hundreds of metres of height, an inductor bank was also installed in the wind farm’s substation. The generator set must power the bank during the first seconds after the hurricane, while the wind turbines and the medium-voltage cable runs aren’t being powered. In order for the generator set to be able to support this strong inductive load, its alternator was oversized, through the installation of a top of the range 3.000 kVA alternator.