Ocean Energy Reliability Workshop to be held at EWTEC

You are invited to attend the Ocean Energy Reliability Workshop taking place at EWTEC 2019 in Italy.

The workshop is being jointly hosted by RiaSoR2 and MONITOR project partners and will share learnings from across the two reliability-focused projects to support the progression of wave and tidal energy.

Venue: Renaissance Hotel Mediterraneo, Via Ponte di Tappia 25, 80133, Napoli (600 metres from EWTEC venue).

RSVP: Email carly.tait@emec.org.uk to book your place. Registration is free, however spaces are limited.

Please find the agenda below or download your invitation here

15.30 – 16.00 (30 min)	• Introduction and overview of MONITOR and RiaSoR2 projects. • VMEA importance to reliability.	Michael Togneri (MONITOR) Johannes Huffmeier & Pär Johannesson (RiaSoR2)
16.00 – 17.30 (90 min)	Demonstrating monitoring of wave energy converters: • Monitoring framework • Quantification of load uncertainties in the design process of a WEC • Reliability assessments • Monitoring system • Training package	Mathias Johanson Mairead Atcheson Pär Johannesson August von Hacht Charlotte Strang-Moran
17.30 – 18.00 (30 min)	Break – refreshments provided
18.00 – 19.00 (60 min)	Multi-model investigation of tidal energy converter reliability: • Computer modelling • Lab modelling • At sea testing	Michael Togneri Grégory Pinon André Pacheco

RiaSoR2 reliability guidance published for wave energy

The Reliability in a Sea of Risk 2 (RiaSoR 2) project has published new reports on condition monitoring systems (CMS), numerical load analysis and reliability assessment specifications for wave energy converters (WECs).

Building on Phase 1 of the RiaSoR project, which developed a theoretical reliability assessment guideline for WECs and tidal energy converters (TECs), RiaSoR 2 aims to enable developers to validate their findings and establish a practical, condition-based monitoring platform to prepare for future arrays, where big data handling and processing will be vital to drive down operational expenditure.

Available to download from the RiaSoR website (www.riasor.com), the reports feed the methodologies and training into the guideline developed in the first RiaSoR project.

The reports available for download are:
• Condition Monitoring Requirements and Needs
• Condition Monitoring Systems of Wave Energy Converters
• Condition Monitoring Training Requirements
• Outline Load Assessment Numerical Tool Specification

The CMS reports developed by RiaSoR 2 partners transfer experience from other industries providing an insight into the condition monitoring of WECs.

An efficient condition monitoring system will allow early detection of upcoming failures due to aspects such as vibrations, causing structural fatigue of the marine energy converter. The CMS will detect any abnormal behaviour in different components of the WEC, for example the structural, electrical or hydraulic sub-systems and other operational parameters such as pre-tension and entanglement of moorings. The ‘Training Requirements’ report provides a statement of requirements for a User Training Package, including for relevant CMS certification, standards, and guidelines.

Johannes Hüffmeier, RISE adds:

“The reports give guidance on how to increase reliability of ocean energy devices by a structured approach ensuring increased uptime of critical components, more efficient maintenance campaigns and in the long run allow for knowledge-driven design.”

The reports have been developed by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Alkit Communications AB, Cruz Atcheson Consulting Engineers and Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, in association with the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), Synective Labs, CorPower Ocean, Waves4Power and Ocean Harvesting.

The RiaSoR 2 project is funded by the Ocean Energy European Research Area Network (OCEANERA-NET), in association with the Swedish Energy Agency and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Improving the reliability of wave and tidal energy converters

The second phase of an international collaborative research project designed to improve the reliability of wave and tidal energy converters (WEC/TEC) is now underway.

By reducing associated risks and enhancing reliability, the project aims to encourage increased investment in the marine energy industry by both the public and private sector.

Building on the success of Phase 1 of the Reliability in a Sea of Risk (RiaSoR) project, which developed a theoretical reliability assessment guideline for WECs and TECs, Phase 2 aims to enable developers to validate their findings and establish a practical, condition-based monitoring platform to prepare for future arrays, where big data handling and processing will be vital to drive down operational expenditure.

Marine energy devices operate in harsh environments but still need to perform reliably and produce an expected amount of energy, which gives rise to huge engineering challenges.

Funded through the OceanERANET initiative and led by the Research Institute of Sweden (RISE), RiaSoR2 brings together the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, Alkit Communications, Synective Labs, CorPower Ocean, Waves4Power, Cruz Atcheson and OceanHarvesting to offer a comprehensive suite of testing methodologies to wave and tidal developers that will enable a systematic approach to achieve optimal reliability and performance, while minimising cost and time-to-market.

The RiaSoR 1 reliability guideline built upon established practices from the automotive industry where a monitoring framework is applied to a fleet of test-vehicles. Through design iterations, the reliability is improved, and a final reduced set of sensors are deployed in a commercial vehicle.

For RiaSoR 2, components for monitoring will be equipped with several sensors to collect required data, which will then be fed into the reliability process to reduce uncertainties. Sea tests will act as case studies to feed the methodologies and training into the guideline.

The findings from this will then be disseminated to other WEC and TEC developers, and the wider industry.

“Reliability testing is tough to do in the sea. RiaSoR 2 is about establishing a methodology and testing programme so we can gather data between device installation through to MTTF (mean time to failure). The instrumentation, condition monitoring methodology applied with Variation Mode and Effect Analysis (VMEA) methodology used in other more mature sectors such as the automotive and aerospace industry will be adapted in the RiaSoR project for the ocean energy sector and will provide valuable insight into prototype design development”, explains Elaine Buck, EMEC’s Technical Manager.

Johannes Hüffmeier, RISE adds:

“Earlier this year, the RiaSoR 2 consortium held a workshop in Stockholm which resulted in an appropriate aim and scope being developed for the monitoring guideline. We discussed the methods that are suitable to derive cost-efficient monitoring systems based on key performance indicators. In the workshop we had a useful brainstorming session around requirements on sensors, system architecture and devices. Additionally, the project will be making a report on condition-based monitoring and sensing techniques for ocean energy devices available shortly.”

Further information about the project and upcoming RiaSoR2 events can be found on the RiaSoR website, here: www.riasor.com

Reliability guidance published for marine energy developers

The Reliability in a Sea of Risk (RiaSoR) project has published new guidance advising on the assessment of reliability in marine energy converters.

Available to download from the RiaSoR website, the ‘Reliability Guidance for Marine Energy Converters’ report transfers experience in the application of Variation Mode and Effect Analysis (VMEA) from the automotive and aerospace industries to the ocean energy sector.

Developed by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, in association with the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) and the ORE Catapult Development Services Ltd (ODSL), the new reliability methodology looks at the design criteria for marine energy converters, with the different phases of VMEA explained in detail.

To demonstrate the application of VMEA, the guidance document also provides case studies looking at structural, electrical and mooring/foundation elements of devices, with a short reference guide and Excel template provided to support future application of the tool.

A workshop was held in Glasgow earlier this month to provide an overview and training on the use of the methodology. To ensure that the learning from the project is disseminated and applied throughout the industry, a video of the presentations from this workshop is also available to view online: RiaSoR workshop video.

The RiaSoR project is funded by the Ocean Energy European Research Area Network (OCEANERA-NET) First Joint Call 2014, in association with Scottish Enterprise, InnovateUK and Swedish Energy Agency.

Karen Fraser, Marine Energy Senior Executive at Scottish Enterprise and Coordinator of OCEAN ERA-NET commented:

“I am very pleased to see this outcome from the first OCEANERA-NET Joint Call 2014 for collaborative research and development projects. OCEANERA-NET aims to add value by supporting international collaboration to meet the needs of the sector, and this project is successfully tackling one of the identified key challenges, improving reliability.”

Developing a reliability testing culture for ocean energy

Three of the leading European research and testing sites embark on development of a methodology to improve reliability in marine energy converters

Scotland’s European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) is working with the UK’s Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden to improve reliability testing, with the aim of building robustness into marine energy technology design and performance.

Funded through the OCEANERA-NET initiative, the Reliability in a Sea of Risk (RiaSoR) project will establish industry best practice in reliability testing for wave and tidal energy devices through improved load measurements and verification, while increasing safety in marine energy operations.

“RiaSoR addresses two of the main challenges identified by the OCEANERA-NET project: reliability and survivability of ocean energy technologies; and design and development of components for ocean energy technologies,” said Karen Fraser, Marine Energy Senior Executive at Scottish Enterprise and Coordinator of OCEAN ERA-NET.

“This will ultimately reduce HSE risks, technological risks, and operations and maintenance risks, with the aim to lowering the levelised cost of energy for the sector, and speeding up progression to commercialisation.”

The industry-approved reliability testing practices developed by RiaSoR will be applied through the leading ocean energy testing houses to ensure consistency and robustness by which reliability is demonstrated across all wave and tidal technologies.

“Every technology that has been deployed in the extreme wave and tidal conditions at EMEC’s test sites has encountered challenges with reliability and survivability,” explains Elaine Buck, EMEC’s Technical Business Development Manager.

“Developers are faced with a very difficult investment climate and are often pressured to push device development from TRL 4/5 straight to TRL 7/8 without the time to learn from experience gained during the testing and modelling for reliability of the structure or subcomponents. Encountering such challenges at sea can become very costly so there’s a critical need for robust reliability testing prior to offshore deployments.

“For a test site to provide a comprehensive testing service, we need to understand the potential failures as early as possible to reduce the risk, cost and time for the developer. At EMEC we’re always looking to expand our testing capabilities, and the development of this reliability test programme will be of great benefit to the marine energy developers who utilise our test sites.”

The RiaSoR project aims to educate the nascent ocean energy industry of the impact of variance mode and effect analysis methodology (VMEA) to foster structured innovation as technologies move from concept to laboratory testing, and then onto full scale tests.

“We want to develop a culture of reliability testing within the ocean energy sector”, explains Pierre Ingmarsson, with SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden.

“Therefore we will develop a programme for transferring skills in reliability analysis to marine energy developers through the testing houses. This will ensure that the practical methodologies developed in this project are taken up by industry and make a lasting impact.”

The overall technical approach will be driven by SP Research Institute, bringing their experience of reliability from the automotive industry.

Chong Ng, ORE Catapult adds:

“Failure modes are in most cases triggered by unwanted variation. RiaSoR will therefore adapt the Variation Mode and Effect Analysis (VMEA) methodology used in other more mature sectors such as the automotive and aerospace industry into an ocean energy VMEA.

“This process will be used to de-risk the uncertainty of failures in the structural, electrical and connection elements of wave and tidal devices and allow more accurate predictions on the load variations they encounter.”

By reducing associated risks and enhancing reliability, the project aims to encourage increased investment in the industry by both the public and private sector.

After the methodologies have been produced, an approved reliability methodology framework will be published for use by other test sites, and an educational workshop will be delivered to disseminate the findings from the project to technology developers and the wider industry.

Free reliability methodology training workshop for marine energy

The RiaSoR (Reliability in a Sea of Risk) consortium are organising a free workshop to provide marine energy developers with training on how to use newly developed reliability methodologies.

The workshop will also provide an opportunity for the partners of the project – EMEC, ORE Catapult and SP Research – to update the marine energy sector on the progress and outcomes of the RiaSoR project.

Funded by OCEANERA-NET, RiaSoR aims to develop and demonstrate an innovative reliability analysis method that will enhance and simplify the evaluation of the technical and economic performance of marine energy converters.

It addresses two of the major challenges for ocean energy: reliability and survivability of marine energy technologies; and design and development of components for marine energy technologies.

The RiaSoR training programme has been established to transfer skills in reliability analysis to wave and tidal energy developers, particularly technical engineers and technical decision makers. However, the workshop is open all interested parties to attend.

The ultimate goal of the workshop is to ensure that the practical methodologies developed in the project are taken up by industry and make a lasting impact. The key benefits of attending this free workshop are:

• Learn first-hand how to improve reliability in the design of your devices and test programmes;
• Interactive application of VMEA analysis tool;
• Collaborative discussion on reliability areas to be focused on for more detailed analysis;
• Update on RiaSoR 2 proposal.

The workshop will be held from lunch-to-lunch on 30th November to 1st December in Glasgow. For the workshop agenda, and details on how to register for the workshop, visit the RiaSoR training workshop event page.

Ocean energy engineers discuss reliability in a sea of risk

37 marine energy engineers and academics have taken part in an educational workshop reviewing new reliability methodologies for ocean energy.

The reliability methodologies have been developed as part of the OCEANERA-NET funded RiaSoR project.

Reliability in a Sea of Risk (RiaSoR) has established guidelines detailing industry best practice in reliability testing for wave and tidal energy devices through improved load measurements and verification.

Held at the Technology and Innovation Centre at Strathclyde University over Wednesday and Thursday last week, the workshop aimed to educate engineers on the use of ocean-energy-focused variance mode and effect analysis methodology (VMEA) to improve reliability in the design of wave and tidal energy devices and test programmes.

Commenting on the workshop, Raul Rodriguez, Head of Marine and Offshore Engineering at Tecnalia stated:

“I’ve found the workshop very interesting. It was great to hear from experts and from academia about real operations experience from the industry and test sites. I had some good discussions with the other delegates and facilitators from the project over the two days and I feel some synergies with current Horizon 2020 projects like OPERA can come from further collaboration. I would be interested to see something similar repeated in the near future and look forward to reviewing the deliverables from the project.”

The project has been a collaborative effort between the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, both based in the UK, and SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden.

Pär Johannesson, PhD from SP Technical Research Institute:

“The automotive and aerospace industries have been using VMEA to analyse reliability and uncertainty for decades. VMEA is a flexible tool that can be used from the initial design phase with limited access to data, and to full system analysis. We’ve amended this for the use of the ocean energy industry to de-risk the uncertainty of failures in structural, electrical and connection elements for marine energy converters, with the ultimate aim of lowering the levelised cost of energy for the sector and instigate investment in the sector.

“We’re delighted with the turnout at the workshop which includes engineers from both wave and tidal energy technology companies. We had some really good discussions with the delegates, and look forward to seeing the methodology now applied throughout the industry.”

Now that the methodologies have been produced, an approved reliability methodology framework will be published later in December 2016.

The RiaSoR project is funded by the Ocean Energy European Research Area Network (OCEANERA-NET) First Joint Call 2014, in association with Scottish Enterprise, InnovateUK and Swedish Energy Agency.