Winds of change: how data and analytics are driving renewable power

As fossil fuel makes way for cleaner, greener alternatives, the winds of change are blowing ever harder through the energy business. In the second quarter of this year, almost 45 per cent of the UK’s electricity came from renewables, largely thanks to the increasing availability, and decreasing cost, of offshore wind.

That’s no small achievement considering the huge engineering challenges that constructing reliable wind farms in the UK’s stormy coastal waters presents. But it’s only the start – hitting the government’s ambitious net zero by 2050 target is going to require an even greater step change in sustainability for renewable energy says John Downes, director of engineering and innovation for SSE Renewables. A change that will have digitalisation and data at its heart.

“It’s all about how SSE makes its contribution to net zero by making renewable energy even more cost effective, longer life and more reliable than it is now,” Downes says. “We’re already planning to treble our generation capacity by 2030. Digital [technology] is going to be a real strategic capability that will help us win.”

To that end, SSE has the largest offshore wind development pipeline in the UK, including the Dogger Bank wind farm 130km off the northeast coast – a joint venture with Equinor and Eni – which will be the world’s largest when completed in 2026. Insights from digital modelling are key to optimising the design of new wind farms at every level of detail, says Downes. At a macro level, “If you are too conservative on design assumptions you could put 150 tonnes of steel into an offshore structure that you may not need.” While at a micro level, using weather data and fluid modelling techniques can refine the precise position and orientation of every turbine so that its blades catch the breeze most efficiently. “It’s all about getting more megawatts out of the asset,” says Downes.

But new capacity is only part of the sustainability story. Extending the lifespan of SSE’s existing renewable estate – which also includes onshore wind and hydro-electric facilities – is equally important. “The last ten years have been fast and furious in terms of building out, but now we’ve hit a certain maturity in the industry. Data is giving us a really detailed picture of what is actually going on so we can extend asset lifespans from 20 years to 25, 30 or even 35 years.”

Using cloud-based platforms and analytics tools that don’t require a master’s degree to use, operational data that previously lived an unexamined life tucked away in difficult to access systems can now be much more readily interrogated. “To get value from data it needs to be accessible, but individual wind farms were built on a project by project basis. All the data was there but it was on multiple different platforms. What’s really changed in the last year is that we’ve democratised the data – we’ve given it to people in a place where it isn’t locked away.”

‘Leveraging digital technology should not be about displacing people but about augmenting them, and empowering them to achieve more’

Maintenance offshore is a growing challenge that is being addressed by technology – unlike their land-based coal and gas predecessors, fixing a faulty wind turbine requires sending engineers to work miles out to sea in hazardous marine environments. But technology can help: drones conduct regular safety checks on turbine blades to minimise the risk, expense and carbon emissions, and when human intervention is required, a single engineer on site with a helmet camera and a live link can be supported by their team of specialist colleagues working remotely back on land. “They can be the eyes and ears on site, so you only have to send one engineer out instead of five,” says Downes.

Data also holds the key to unlocking the potential of AI-powered predictive analytics, says Matt Higham, chief digital officer and sustainability lead for Microsoft UK. “We can take real time data and use it to predict when a part is going to fail so that we only send an engineer when one is actually needed.” If a wind turbine’s gearbox is overheating, for example, it can be put into a kind of “limp” mode so it carries on working at a reduced output until the faulty components can be replaced at the next scheduled visit. “That minimises cost, downtime and lost revenue.”

But making the most of digital is not only – or even chiefly – about technology, he adds. “Ultimately the culture is the most important part, the shift to being more digitally skilled and digitally minded. But a lot of organisations start with the technology and forget to bring the people along too. Leveraging digital technology should not be about displacing people but about augmenting them, and empowering them to achieve more. It’s got to be driven from the board, it can’t be driven from within the IT department.”

It’s a virtuous circle that adds up to greater competitiveness and brighter prospects both for renewables and for the low-carbon economy of the future, says Higham. “The more efficient we can make renewable energy, the more competitive it is in the energy market. That drives more investment in renewables which in turn drives the whole economy that sits behind it.”

And with many hopes now being pinned on a low-carbon economic recovery from the ravages of Covid-19, it looks like those winds of change are going to keep blowing for a while yet. “It’s not only about how we digitise today’s assets, but also how we make sure that we get what we need for tomorrow, for the next five or ten years.” Says SSE’s Downes. “Digital is going to drive our competitiveness and growth in the future.”