Japan’s Largest Wind Farm Embarks on Full-scale Drive with Yokogawa SCADA Solution

Participation in Construction of Wind Farm Tsugaru

The vast Tsugaru Plain that spreads across the Tsugaru Peninsula in the northwestern part of Aomori Prefecture in Japan. It is a leafy region facing the Sea of Japan where agriculture, forestry and fisheries are thriving. The Wind Farm Tsugaru commenced commercial operation on April 1, 2020 after approximately two and a half years of construction in this lush green area with rather moderate temperatures around 25o C in summer and –5o C even in harsh winters, making it relatively comfortable in the Tohoku region. The farm is owned and operated by Green Power Investment Corporation, Japan.

Most part of the plant is built in an agricultural land in line with the Act on Promotion of Generating Renewable Energy Harmonized with Healthy Development of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery. With 38 General Electric 3,200-kilowatt turbines installed in northern and southern areas, its installed capacity of 121,600 kilowatts (kW) can cover the power demand of about 90,000 households according to the typical household electricity consumption and has made it the largest wind farm in Japan at the start of operation. In environmental aspects, a carbon dioxide reduction effect of 180,000 tons per year is expected.

The entire electricity generated is supplied to Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc., the local electric utility via a grid interconnection switchyard about 15 km (~9.3 miles) away.

Yokogawa participated in the project as the system provider from the beginning of construction throughout phases from design, engineering, introduction, up to the test runs.

Yokogawa SCADA Solution Drives Wind Power Generation Business

Although the world’s industries have been developed with energy derived from coal, oil and natural gas and most of them (~80%) are still relying on fossil fuels, efforts to exhaust the possibilities of renewable energy, including wind power generation business are of critical importance when considering the global environment.

Initiatives to leverage renewable energy such as wind power, solar power and biomass have been promoted in recent years; however, Japan lags Europe and America in introduction amount and technological strength, calling for technological innovation in many aspects from construction to operation.

Power generation facilities using renewable energy such as wind farms are characterized by their small scale and distributed installations, which pose difficulty in manual operation. The Wind Farm Tsugaru has 38 turbines in an area extending approximately 10 km (~6.2 miles) from north to south, and the grid interconnection switchyard is about 20 km away from the north site. This makes a remote operation and monitoring system essential for efficient operation with limited staff.

Yokogawa is committed to contribution to technical development by leveraging its technologies fostered in the realms of measurement, control and information for various industries. The FAST/ TOOLS SCADA system at Wind Farm Tsugaru was configured by sharing wisdom with the owner, construction company and electric equipment company.

System Overview

Yokogawa supplied the following equipment and services for Wind Farm Tsugaru:

- e-RT3 Real-time-OS-based Controllers for monitoring and operation of substations and a switchyard: Enables remote operation and monitoring from the distant Operation and Maintenance Office and used for monitoring of equipment statuses, process value readings, and alarms. The e-RT3 controllers also perform communication with the power utility and turbine controllers and control switches.

- FAST/TOOLS SCADA for supervisory facility monitoring and control: Enables supervisory monitoring from offices. FAST/TOOLS communicates with the substations, switchyard, and wind turbines at intervals of one second or less and displays the readings and statuses on screen. In addition to real-time monitoring, FAST/TOOLS facilitates administrative tasks such as daily and monthly report preparation.

- System equipment: A full set of system equipment including administrative servers, PCs for monitoring and peripherals were supplied.

- Network and cyber security design and configuration for communication inside the farm and with other companies: Yokogawa rendered network design and configuration services such as adoption of equipment and configuration of remote environments at overseas offices and at Yokogawa Headquarters, not to mention including security configuration (Yokogawa has been working on cyber security measures).

- Associated engineering and onsite services: A total solution from system proposal to design, engineering, adoption, and support for test runs was supplied.

For Further Development of Wind Power Generation Business

As electricity deregulation is advancing, various systems are being introduced to overseas wind power generation facilities, such as optimized equipment operation for cost reduction for longer equipment lives, and predictive analysis for failure avoidance, whereas use of wind power generation systems in Japan is still limited to facility operation. In Japan, too, cost competitiveness will become an important issue in near future.

The fact that wind power is an unstable power source is also preventing the introduction amount from increasing. Yokogawa actively works on stabilization of the output from wind power generation by making the most of reliable batteries.

We value co-innovation with companies in various fields and contribute to development of renewable energy beyond the framework of the company and serve the world in the fields of measurement, control and information to help realize a sustainable society.

- Yokogawa