SIMEC Atlantis Energy has announced plans to retrieve two of the four installed MeyGen tidal turbines following diagnosis of a generator fault by the onboard monitoring systems.
The project operators plan to retrieve two of the Andritz Hammerfest Hydro (AHH) turbines during this month for inspection and maintenance by the turbine supplier, SIMEC Atlantis informed.
The turbines, both of which are covered under warranty, will be inspected onshore and, subject to confirmation of the fault diagnosis, the repairs are expected to be completed within approximately two months.
The remaining AHH turbine and Atlantis’ own AR1500 turbine continue to generate electricity, the company noted.
At 6MW rated capacity, MeyGen is the world’s largest tidal stream array and has 392MW of further development capacity under its seabed lease.
The project formally completed its construction and commissioning phase in March 2018 and is currently in the warranty period.
MeyGen has generated over 8GWh of energy to the grid to date, according to SIMEC Atlantis.
The array also exported a world record 1.4GWh of electricity to the grid in a single month this year, which would have satisfied the electrical requirements of 5420 average UK homes during that month.