Strainstall has been selected to provide load monitoring solution for Sustainable Marine Energy’s PLAT-I floating tidal energy platform.
James Fisher and Sons’ subsidiary Strainstall will supply two of its load shackles that will be installed on the 280kW PLAT-I platform, deployed off Scotland last month.
The load shackles will gather data to support future development and help refine operational strategy, according to Strainstall.
The instrumentation and data gathering is being carried out as part of a project called ‘Survivability and Reliability of Floating Tidal Energy Converters’ (SURFTEC) in partnership with Swansea University.
The project aims to provide better understanding of the effects of extreme conditions and fatigue loads on tidal energy converters, in order to improve the survivability and reliability of floating platform tidal turbine devices.
Nick Cresswell , Mechanical Design Engineer at Sustainable Marine Energy, said: “One of Strainstall’s shackles is being put through its paces as we speak. So far we have been getting some good data out which will allow us to verify the loading.”
The load monitoring data will also help inform future developments to maximize tidal energy converters life-span, with the goal of providing full confidence in the development and ongoing performance of tidal energy array installations in challenging environments.
Data monitoring at the Connel site is planned to be carried out into 2019.