Swedish company Ocean Harvesting Technologies has teamed up with experts in model-based predictive control to increase the performance of InfinityWEC in the upcoming sea trials.
Use of predictive control strategies in a point-absorbing wave energy converter (WEC) greatly increases the annual energy production (AEP) compared to non-predictive reactive control, according to Ocean Harvesting .
The company said it has seen up to 30% improvement with model predictive control (MPC) in simulations, and similar results have been shown by other WEC developers and in academic research
Now, Ocean Harvesting is collaborating with leading researchers to implement a new type of controller called a nonlinear moment-based MPC, developed at Centre for Ocean Energy Research (COER) at Maynooth University in Ireland.
This controller substantially improves energy output and is fast enough to run on a real-time control system.
Ocean Harvesting is also collaborating with AI experts to implement machine learning techniques which will improve the accuracy of the system model in the controller.
InfinityWEC is unique in its capability to host and benefit from predictive control strategies, designed to provide highly efficient instant force control through a combination of ball screw actuators and hydrostatic pre-tension.
Mikael Sidenmark , CEO of Ocean Harvesting, said: “Following the recent update with hydrostatic pre-tension, reducing the weight of InfinityWEC’s power take-off (PTO) by 40% , the new controller is another step change in Technology Performance Level, or TPL, and material efficiency.”
During 2023, Ocean Harvesting will implement the new controller and optimize InfinityWEC’s performance through numerical simulations.
The controller will then be implemented in a high-fidelity simulation environment, and in the real-time control system in the company’s scale 1:10 PTO test rig, in preparation for the scale 1:3 sea trial project planned to start in January 2024.
Ocean Harvesting is also raising €3 million to finance the scale sea trial in 2024-25. The project has already received a €2 million grant from the Swedish Energy Agency.