Page 359 - Fluid Power Engineering

Planning and Execution of W ind Projects 319

Turbine manufacturer, whose commissioning personnel per-

form the commissioning exercise
Contractor, whose civil and electrical personnel assist the tur-

bine manufacturer’s representatives with testing, monitoring,
and fixing
Project owner, who takes over and owns the project at the end

of commissioning
Wind farm operator, who operates and maintains the facility

for the project owner
Local utility, who will buy the energy produced by wind farm

Third-party independent expert, who works on behalf of the

project owner to oversee the commissioning process
To avoid problems, the types of tests and outcomes during com-
missioning should be documented in the contract with the turbine
manufacturer and the contractor. During contract negotiation, the tur-
bine manufacturer’s or contractor’s preexisting checklist should be re-
viewed, and this list, along with any modifications, should be added
to the contract.
The objective of the commissioning phase is to ensure that the
complete wind plant is safe to operate, is producing energy in a reli-
able manner and of acceptable quality, and any outstanding defects
have been identified. In addition, a plan of action has been agreed
to by turbine manufacturer, contractor, and project owner to resolve
outstanding issues. After the commissioning process, the ownership
of the wind project turns over to the project owner. Typical criteria for
passing the commissioning process are:
1. All the utility interconnection criteria are met. Prior to commis-
sioning, the local utility or the regional transmission operator
provideschecklistsandtheoperationsengineersfromtheutil-
ity/RTO inspect the plant. As an example, consider a two-step
procedure employed by Electric Reliability Council of Texas
(ERCOT) 3
a. Request to commission station. ERCOT provides a “request
to commission station” checklist. After conditions in the
checklist are met, it is submitted to the utility/RTO by the
operator. An approval and date of initial energize is issued
for the interconnection of the wind farm after the following
three conditions are met:
Sign off on the checklist by the utility/RTO

Resolution of all pending issues with utility’s operations

engineering
SCADA system is ready to monitor energy production