Carnegie Wave has announced that its CETO 5 wave energy array has reached 12.000 hours of cumulative, continuous operation at sea.
The 720kW array featuring three CETO 5 units , deployed as part of Perth Wave Energy Project, has seen a wide range of sea states, including waves up to 5.7 m high since the installation of the first unit in November, 2014.
The winter swells CETO 5 array is experiencing has enabled Carnegie’s plant operators and the analysis team to run real time optimisation strategies to understand the exact plant settings that will maximise power production for specific sea states.
The settings will become part of the system logic to be automatically selected when the same sea state is experienced in the future, according to Carnegie Wave.
The information gathered during winter on CETO 5 array will influence the design and future operation of CETO 6 units.
“This operational milestone is not only significant for Carnegie and the Perth Project, but for the wave energy industry as a whole, addressing the industry wide challenges around reliability and survivability. The Perth Project has been specifically designed to demonstrate survivability, maximise operational hours and confirm CETO 5 unit capacity. The operational results to date provide confidence that the performance of the CETO 5 system is meeting expectations,” it is stated in Carnegie Wave’s quarterly report.
As reported earlier, Carnegie retrieved the first CETO 5 unit for onshore maintenance and inspection.
According to Carnegie, the preparations are currently underway at Australian Marine Complex, located in Henderson, for redeployment of the first unit planned for the coming weeks, subject to suitable weather conditions.
Carnegie plans to retrieve the second CETO 5 unit and install the first unit in its place.
This will allow Carnegie to test unit interchangeability – a part of Carnegie’s ‘hot swap’ strategy where any unit can be swapped for another while the plant continues to operate.
Image: Carnegie Wave Energy