Focus

On November 2024, the Guoneng Dafeng H5# Offshore Wind Farm in Jiangsu Yancheng (hereinafter referred to as the "H5# Project") set a historic record. The 32 GW184-6.45MW offshore wind turbines installed at the project generated 56.49 million kWh of electricity in a single month, with a 100% unit availability rate and zero faults throughout the month, creating the best level in the history of China's offshore wind power.

The H5# Project is the first offshore wind farm developed and constructed by a prefecture-level state-owned enterprise in China, with a total installed capacity of 206.4MW and fully connected to the grid in December 2021. The center of the wind farm is about 67 kilometers away from the coast, and it takes 5 hours by maintenance boat to reach the wind farm one-way trip. The long distance, which is an inherent limiting factor, has led to many inherent challenges such as short operation windows and high costs of going to sea, determining that the offshore wind turbines located here must be "high-performance, high-safety, and high-reliable."

Since the grid connection of the substation, Yancheng Guoneng has always adhered to the goal of "high quality, high standards, and high efficiency," and has strictly managed the safety production and operation processes. Despite the multiple difficulties of long distance from the shore, short operation windows, and arduous maintenance challenges, Yancheng Guoneng has explored and practiced new management models, and together with Goldwind, achieved stable and efficient operation and maintenance of the project. Goldwind has also made solid contributions to the project operation in various dimensions, ultimately helping the H5# Project achieve this historic performance.

High-quality Products, Serving as the "Keystone"

As the distance from the shore increases, the wind speed in deep and far seas is often greater, and the wind conditions are more complex. To enable the units to "capture the wind" stably and safely in the far-sea areas, Goldwind adopted customized load reduction strategies and technical solutions during the product design stage. The GW184-6.45MW units used in the project combine advanced laser wind sensing technology, tower clearance monitoring systems, and intelligent wind turbine control technology, providing the units with a "smart brain" that can accurately perceive the wind speed, wind direction, and turbulence intensity of the incoming flow and its changes in advance, significantly reducing the unit load, effectively optimizing the power generation, and enhancing the stability and adaptability of the units under harsh wind conditions, fundamentally reducing the occurrence of unit faults. The unit was rated as one of the TOP10 global offshore wind turbine units in 2020 by the authoritative media Windpower Monthly. Goldwind wind turbine, with their excellent product quality, serve as the "keystone" for the H5# Project to achieve this historic performance.

High-efficiency Operation and Maintenance, Building a "Moat"

Due to the short operation window and complex marine environment, if a wind turbine fails in the sea dozens of kilometers away from the shore, the highest cost is usually not the component itself, but the transportation and personnel costs for far-sea maintenance. Moreover, in the marine environment, issues such as tides, poor communication, and extreme weather can also increase the cost of operation and maintenance and safety risks.

In addition to the high quality and stable operation of the units themselves, achieving professional, intelligent, and intensive operation and maintenance, and improving the level of project operation and maintenance, is the "moat" for the H5# Project to achieve repeated successes. Goldwind adopted its independently developed intelligent meteorological early warning system, which, based on more than 10 years of accumulated marine meteorological database and big data algorithms, can accurately predict and grasp the weather patterns of the sea area, and formulate rigorous and reasonable ship and personnel going-to-sea management systems according to this, significantly improving the efficiency of going to sea, reducing the number of ship outings by an average of once a month, saving about 140,000 yuan in costs.

Goldwind also focused on improving the professional level of offshore operation and maintenance personnel to avoid project losses caused by work errors. Goldwind's Offshore Wind Power Training Center is the first domestic institution to obtain GWO 17 safety and technical module training, covering wind power safety, wind power technology, and special industries. All operation and maintenance personnel of Goldwind's offshore projects have received systematic training at this center, and the professional level of operation and maintenance is reliably guaranteed. On this basis, Goldwind improved the "first-time completion rate" by strengthening the standard operation process of operation and maintenance, and stored commonly used spare parts on the booster station. Compared with dispatching spare parts from the shore, this can save more than 5 hours of transportation time, significantly reducing the project operation cost.

Today, various industries are embracing the digital wave. For the wind power industry, digital technology can provide a strong supplement to manual operations. Goldwind has built a digital operation and maintenance platform for wind power operation and maintenance, including multiple functional modules such as the Agile Dispatch System (FCC), Intelligent Operation and Maintenance Platform (IOM), Offshore Construction and Operation and Maintenance Service Management Platform (FEMS), and Solution Platform. For example, FCC can automatically select the optimal mode for going-to-sea plan arrangement based on the window period, number of personnel, ships, and other information, maximizing labor efficiency, and strongly promoting the transformation from manual operation and maintenance to digital operation and maintenance.

High-efficiency Power Generation, Striving to be the "Pacesetter"

High-quality products and high-efficiency operation and maintenance services have enabled the H5# Project to achieve outstanding power generation benefits, becoming the "pacesetter" in the Jiangsu region. In 2022, despite the wind conditions in the sea area where the H5# Project is located being worse than in previous years, the annual power generation volume reached about 600 million kWh, exceeding the annual power generation task, and creating the excellent result of power generation exceeding the design value in the first year of operation, ranking among the top three in the comparison of production and operation indicators of offshore wind power in Jiangsu Province throughout the year 2022.

In February 2024, the H5# Project generated 81.18 million kWh of electricity in a single month, with an average unit availability rate of 99.99%, and a single-month equivalent utilization hour number of nearly 400 hours, setting a new record in the Jiangsu region. In the third quarter of 2024, the project successively won several honors such as the 4A-level Offshore Wind Farm of the China Electricity Council, the Top Ten Wind Farms of China's Wind Power Industry, and the China Electric Power Quality Project Award, which represents the highest honor of engineering quality in China's electric power construction industry.

The scaled development of the wind power industry requires both stability and efficiency. The historic achievement of the H5# Project is the result of the sincere cooperation and win-win between Goldwind and the owner Yancheng Guoneng. The project is a microcosm of the high-quality development of China's wind power and a good demonstration of an offshore wind power project. Goldwind takes high-quality products as the "keystone," builds a "moat" for operation and maintenance, strives to be the "pacesetter" for power generation, and creates high-quality wind power projects with demonstrative significance, setting another benchmark for the development of China's offshore wind power.

Continuing to move forward and write a new chapter, Goldwind will adhere to the value orientation, promote wind power technology innovation, strengthen talent team building, create high-quality projects, and work with industry partners to jointly promote the high-quality development of China's wind power.