Tamed Wind Energy for Microgrids

The West Harris Community Centre sits in the heart of Horgabost on the Isle of Harris in the Scottish Islands (UK). In 2016, Eocycle installed an EOX M-21 (100kW) wind turbine here to satisfy local electricity consumption.

The grid in Horgabost can only absorb 50kW of power. As such, demand for power and the output of the M-21 needed to be balanced to avoid a grid disconnect. Ecodyn (an engineering consultancy based in Scotland) provided an Energy Management System to maximize the wind turbine output while ensuring grid constraints were respected.

Due to the limited power evacuation possibility of the local grid, the M-21 turbine must run in power-reduction mode at times. This mode can be activated remotely and automatically using the interface to the turbine’s EOX SCADA system. This enables coordination of the turbine with the Energy Management System or the local microgrid controller.

Power delivered by the M-21 passes through a back-to-back AC-DC-AC converter that’s conveniently located at the base of the tower. This enables above-standard power quality and (more importantly) full controllability of the output power.

Thanks to an advanced power-control algorithm, Eocycle turbines can be curtailed to 50% of their rated power. No pitch systems in the hub. No dump-loads in the balance-of-plant system.

The smaller the grid, the bigger the challenge to balance consumption and generation of electricity. Eocycle is able to address this challenge without adding complexity to the system or the turbine.