Welcome to Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET), Chennai

Research & Development

The R & D unit of C-WET will focus on the innovations in development of components as well as sub-systems of wind turbines in association with other R & D Institutions and Industry.

The Research and Development activities of C-WET are classified into five generic areas:

Improvement in performance of existing Wind Turbine Installations.
Research support for Wind resource Assessment.
Manpower Training and HRD
Technology support to Wind Power Industry.
Research and advanced Technology Development.

The R&D department conducts research aimed at improvement in performance of existing wind turbine installations as also research in advanced wind turbine technology.

The R&D team has carried out projects in various fields like grid related investigations of wind farms, optimum blade angle for energy maximization and failure analysis of gearboxes of wind turbines aimed at the existing wind turbine installations.

The ongoing projects in the department are:

Development and validation of design methodologies and design tools for low and moderate wind regimes
Setting up of R&D / experimental wind farm
Testing of small wind turbines
Modeling of Interconnection of Wind Turbines with the grid.
Parameterization of flow distortion around the wind turbine nacelle
Installation of Renewable energy Devices

Ongoing Projects

1. Development and validation of design methodologies and design tools for low and moderate wind regimes

This project will help in generating an indigenous design data bank for the development of indigenous, low cost, robust, technologically advanced wind turbine blades / rotors optimized for low/ moderate wind regimes prevailing in India. This is keeping in view the significance of the rotor in contributing to the turbine cost, energy production of the turbine and loads on the machine. Hence a joint project with National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore has been initiated. The broad outline of this project is to conduct a survey of existing blade profiles and existing modeling strategies for wind turbine aerodynamics, evolving new modeling strategies incorporating in-house computational schemes along with augmentation, carrying out blade / rotor performance studies, wind tunnel and water tunnel studies.

2. Setting up of R&D / experimental wind farm

Two wind turbines ranging from 500-1000 kW will be installed at Wind Turbine Test Station, Kayathar.

Proposed areas of research are:
Simultaneous measurements by different measurement laboratories
Modeling / simulation studies
Monitoring of measurement techniques
Acoustic emissions of wind turbines
Study / changes in the control laws of wind turbine controllers
Study of flow visualization around wind turbine blades
Heat balance studies in the nacelle
Wind turbine blade setting experiments

3.Testing of small wind turbines

A test facility has been set up to carry out the testing of small wind turbines as per IEC 61400-2.The following tests shall be carried out:

1. Power performance

2. Duration test

3. Safety and function test

4. Modeling of Interconnection of the wind turbines with the grid

The objective of this study is to develop a simple tool to study the grid interaction of wind turbines, to determine the contribution of the Wind turbine in governing the behavior of the grid and to study the planning & control strategies involved in the implementation of a wind farm. The methodology of the study is to develop a simple tool in MATLAB to study the grid interaction of wind turbines and to validate the model through real-time measurements in field. Real-time measurements were carried out to validate the model.

Instrumentation carried out for measurements

5. 45 kW Wind-solar-pungham integrated generation system

A wind-solar-pungham integrated generation system has been installed in C-WET premises to meet the load demand partially and also to undertake R&D studies on the system. The proposed system consists of:

       i) 10 kW small wind turbine generating system
       ii) 15 kW solar photovoltaic system and
       iii) 20 kW Pungham oil plant


15 kW Solar Photovoltaic system	Power Conditioning Unit	5 kW Aero generator

The natural resources at the proposed project site had been evaluated for its ability to support a fraction of electrical energy needs of the Centre. The required capacity of the system has been determined so that the load arising due to equipment such as lighting, computers, printers, server etc. installed in the office building is met with.

6. Scanning of Wind profiles in Palghat Gap

The Primary aim of this project is to estimate the 3-D (three Dimensional) wind characteristics from 30-100m. height levels over palghat gap. The study will help to locate the exact location of the windy pass over the Palghat gap. In this project a scintech SODAR (SOund Detection and Ranging) as shown below is being used to estimate the 3D wind characteristics in the atmosphere.

8*8 array of Acoustic Antenna

Acoustic antenna with enclosures

7. Solar Street Light

As a step towards utilization of renewable energy, solar streetlights have been installed in C-WET campus. The system comprises an SPV module (monocrystalline silicon solar cells) and a battery of 12 V/ 75 Ah to power the lamps from dusk to dawn with storage autonomy of five days.

Solar_street_lights_installed

Solar street lights installed in C-WET campus

8. Solar Water Heater

A solar water heater has been installed on C-WET premises for supply of hot water to the canteen and guest rooms. The 300 litre system utilizes a closed loop soft water system keeping in view the uncertain quality of water that is available in and around Chennai.

The following facilities are available for research purposes:

1. Data Acquisition system
2. Integrated sound level meter
3. MATLAB software with toolboxes
4. Power Analyser
5. Digital Storage Oscilloscope
6. AutoCad
7. Bladed software for Windows
8. A nacelle is installed in C-WET premises for demonstration.
9. Pyranometer

10. Mini Telemetry system.