All Blog Posts Tagged 'UMPI' (45)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 -The UMPI turbine website just posted a new production figure: 374,690 kWh since "mid-November".

That's 217 days, or an average of 1727 kWh per day.  The "installed capacity" is 14,400 kWh per day, so that's a Capacity Factor of  11.99%.  No other new information is posted - the "full turbine informaiton" software is still not working.

Harry Roper   Houlton/Danforth

Today the UMPI turbine website reports an update of its ouptut; it generated 355.286 KWH since mid November. That's about six months, or about 183 days. The turbine's "installed capacity" for that period is 600 KW times 24 hours times 183 days equals 2,635,200 KWH. Divide the installed capacity into the actual power produced yields a paltry Capacity Factor of .134 . The previous Capacity  Factor, on May 29 was .126. An optomist would say things are improving. I think a realist would say…

The UMPI wind turbine has a capacity of 600 kw, or 14,400 kwH per day in perfect wind.  Today the website reports 345,400 kwH "since mid-November".  That's 190 days, and the power that was produced averaged 1818 kwH per day. Divide 1818 by 14,400 and you get a 12.6 %  Capacity Factor. For this turbine in this location, 12.6%  Capacity Factor is about average.  On the 14th of this month, the turbine's third anniversary, I calculated a Capacity Factor of 8.9%, including a 210-day period of…

The quarterly summary and spreadsheet pages of the FERC website are shut down as of 11:00 this morning (5/14).  I am hoping this means they are being updated with 1st quarter 2012 data. (The quarter ended March 31, 44 days ago.) 

  Also, the UMPI turbine was erected exactly 3 years ago.  I plan to do a summary of its power production , capacity factor, and reliability record and I will post it soon.

  One sentence was changed on the website: a re-wording of the explanation of…

The UMPI website has posted the turbine's power output for the past week, Friday May 4 - Friday May 11:  12,324 KWh was generated by its 600 kw turbine in tha past week.  12,324 KWh divided by the 100,800 KWh per week installed capacity (600 KW X 7 days X 24 hours ) gives a Capacity Factor of 12.2 %,  slightly less than than the average 12.7 CF for the previous 164 days. Before mid-November, it was non-operative for 164 continuous days. 

I am hoping UMPI will continue posting a weekly…

The UMPI turbine site has just posted a new power production figure::

Since mid-November of 2011, the turbine produced 302,150 kWh for UMPI.  

That's 164 days, an average of 1,842 kWh per day.

302,150 kWh divided by 164 gives an average of 1,842 kwh per day produced since it was fixed.  

It is a 600 kw turbine; 600 kw X 24 hours is 14,400 kWh per day "installed capacity".  

1,842 kWh (recorded average daily power production) divided by 14,400 kWh (installed…

  The UMPI turbine website is reporting power production the past 140 days:  290,516 kWh "since mid-November" until April 6.  I calculate: 140 days at 600 Kw capacity and 24 hours per day comes to "installed capacity" of 20,160,000 kWh for that period; 290,516 kWh actual power production divided by the installed capacity gives a MINISCULE .014 Capacity Factor.  This compares very poorly to most Maine wind farms' CF, which range from .24 to .41 CF for the same period.

The site…

On a visit to the UMPI campus today (Jan. 22) the turbine was not moving at 1:00 PM.   It was turning at apparant full speed at 4:30 when we left. Whether it was producing power or not is a mystery. The turbine website does not have any recent information on it at all; the latest was the report of 94,620 KWH produced as of December 29.

 Harry   Roper  Houlton/Danforth 

The UMPI turbine is working! After 200 days of down time in 2011!  In tha past week some 17,000+ mWh were generated and sold to the grid, addording to the website..  Furthur work is ongoing, to get the site reporting all promised data.

Harrison Roper  Houlton/Danforth

As of yesterday (10/21/11) the UMPI website had posted a new  explanation for not working:

   Partially: ".........We hope that this (the resolution of a shaft alignment problem) will be in a few days and that we will be operating for the primary wind months".  

  Don't hold your breath, fans. The factory is in India, and  the wind turbine has not been working regularly for more than six months.  

It must be very frustrating for the institution, which has prominently…

The UMPI turbine website has partially come to life, after 173 days of ...nothing. The "View Live Turbine Data" now comes up - but with no data at all, just zeroes.  The power production bar chart continues to go only thru March. 

 Also, we were at our camp in Danforth today, on the hill and down by the water.  All of the 19 visible Stetson turbines were turning, in a good wind and with some white caps on Hot Brook Lake.  They are more than 2 miles away from the beach - we did not…

Here is the full statement on the turbine's condition from the UMPI wind turbine website, posted about 9/17:

  "The general contractor conducted diagnostic and repair work on the wind turbine in mid-September and determined there is a broken shaft in the nacelle. Most of the shaft has been removed for furthur diagnostic work and the contractor is securing the appropriate replacement parts.  They hope to have the repairs completed in time for the approaching wind season."

Harry…

UMPI reports that there appears to be a "broken shaft" on their iconic wind turbine. They hope to have a new one installed in time for the "approaching wind season". This is the first time I have seen a "wind season" mentioned. 

  The site has not reported any new data for about five months. First it was a "radius rod"; now the trouble

is a broken shaft. Also, the data reporting software has been down, and no power production figures have been posted since March.  The monthly…

I just took the time to check the frustrating UMPI turbine website - the pink rectangle stating the turbine is down and mentioning the "pitch rod"  difficulty appears at the top of each and every webpage!  Yet there is no mention of the shutdown (apparently for the past 140 days) in the Timeline!  The Timeline consists mostly of publicity events, conferences, etc., and the latest bar chart of power production is for March!

  Considering the promised and publicized "full disclosure" of…

A reliable source reports that Kibby produced 32.91%  its installed capacity in the first quarter of 2011 and 20.46 % of installed capacity in the second quarter of 2011. Winter is usually the best quarter for wind power.

FERC quarterly summaries are not yet available for 2nd quarter of 2011.

UMPI continues to repeat the promise that its website will be working "next week". No information is available on the website except the local wind speed, which is calm now.

H…

UMPI  has finally posted March power production: 17564 KWH, or 566 KWH per day. The turbine's capacity  is

600 KW, or 600X24=14400 KWH per day.  This figures  as a 3.9%  capacity factor, or less than an hour per day of "good" wind. 

This sort of  "explanation" of the lack of other data has been posted for about 10 weeks::

    "The  Live  Wind Turbine Data is not currently active due to repairs. The general contractor anticipates

this system will be functional this…

The UMPI website is once again not working, for the past week. There have been some good wind days, and maybe it was generating power and not reporting it for some reason. No explanation is offered.  This is a rather common situation.  Eventually it gets fixed.

  Friday 2/18 at 6:00 pm the UMPI website reported net power produced 1,099,296 kWh; since then it has reported zero net power.  I will continue to monitor the site daily.

  You will also be interested to know that when…

 My self-imposed task of monitoring of the UMPI turbine website continues. The latest ten-day net power production for this 600 kW turbine averaged 935.7 kWh per day.  That's 6.6% of "rated capacity"! 

My casual log of rotor windspeeds shows the following  momentary data:  (Rotor-level wind speed in mph)  4.3; 2.5; calm; 7.8; 3.8; calm;14.5; 13.9; 7.4; 9.6; 5.1; calm, calm, calm, 3.1; 5.4; 3.4; 13.2; 10.5; 15.2; (one day I skipped; the next day, 2/08, the site reported all zeroes),…

Today is January 27. According to the website, the UMPI wind turbine produced a total of 22,200 kWh over the past ten days. Those days included a n'or'easter Friday the 21st and  yesterday the wind was essentially calm.  That's the way it goes with wind power. 

That  power output is an average of 2,220 KWh per day. So, with capacity of 600 kW, the turbine averaged less than four hours of good wind each day. 

Ideal wind whould produce 14,200 KWh - but it never happens. Thanks to…

The UMPI turbines' website reports average power output of 3,379.7 kWh per day for 12/22 - 12/31. This from a turbine which has "installed capacity" of 14,200 kWh per day.  So, the turbine achieved 23.8 % of its installed capacity forthe period. 

  The best day in the 10-day period was December 22, when it produced 5784 kWh. This is 40.7 % of installed capacity, and is unusually high for a wind turbine.   Still, this was the result of the equivalent of ten hours of "good" wind .... I…