28 September 2016.- ACCIONA Energía, a leading renewable energies company, and the U.S. industrial software firm Sentient Science have reached an agreement with the common aim for the life extension of the entire fleet of wind turbines of ACCIONA and improving their efficiency.
The agreement, signed at the WindEnergy Hamburg fair, which is being held in the German city at the moment, covers the possible use and validation by ACCIONA of Sentient’s DigitalClone® Live® technology to anticipate possible failures in key components of wind turbines years before they occur, leading to operation and maintenance strategies that will lower the cost of energy for ACCIONA.
“We are very proud to be the first major European wind power operator to use the Sentient Science’s reputed technology in our assets. This represents a big step forward in our Turbine for Life program to obtain the maximum performance from our turbines and be ever more competitive,” said ACCIONA Energía CEO Rafael Mateo.
“Digitalization of ACCIONA’s fleet with DigitalClone® Live will provide life extension and lower their cost of energy,” said Ward Thomas, CEO & President of Sentient Science. “We are excited to be working with ACCIONA Energía and his team to achieve ACCIONA Energía’s business goals to have 50-year life machines through life extension supply chain actions.”
Innovative technology
The main feature of the DigitalClone® Live simulation technology developed by Sentient Science, based on its research in the field of materials science, lies in its always on, smart testing technology. It is based on software that creates digital clones of each turbine model and is able to predict the risk of current and future failure of the main components and their expected working life, based on operational data provided by the wind power operator.
The document signed today is for a long-term collaboration following the phase I started Q4 2015.
ACCIONA Energía operates over 9,000 megawatts (MW) of wind power capacity owned by the company or installed for third parties.
The company is firmly committed to improving the efficiency of its turbines and extending their working life beyond the 20-25 years usually applied in the sector, under optimal conditions of safety and reliability. Both factors have a direct impact on the cost of the energy produced and, therefore, on the economic yield of the installations. To achieve this, good management of the assets and the O&M procedures is necessary, within a long-term vision. ACCIONA is currently involved in a process of digital conversion of a number of its management systems. The contract signed with Sentient Science makes complete sense within the framework of both strategies.
About ACCIONA Energía
ACCIONA Energía is a global operator in renewable energies with over 20 years’ experience in the sector. It owns 219 wind farms totaling 7,167 MW; 79 hydro plants (888 MW); 6 CSP plants (314 MW); photovoltaic plants totaling 143 MWp and three biomass plants (61 MW). The company develops projects for customers in wind and photovoltaic power, produces wind turbines using in-house technologies, and markets power to large customers www.acciona-energia.com
It belongs to the ACCIONA Group, one of Spain’s largest corporations. It operates in infrastructure, energy, water and services in over 30 countries. Its corporate motto “Pioneers in development and sustainability” reflects its commitment — across all its activities — to contribute to economic growth, social welfare and the protection of the environment. This effort has been recognized through its inclusion in the Dow Jones (DJSI) and FTSE4Good sustainability indexes. ACCIONA is quoted on the Madrid stock index, has a 33,000-strong workforce and posted revenues of 6,500 million euros in 2014. www.acciona.com
ABOUT SENTIENT SCIENCE
Sentient Science is a trusted third party headquartered in the Advanced Manufacturing District in Buffalo, N.Y. Sentient Science’s main objective is to help wind energy operators achieve a reduction of $10/MWh in their levelized cost of energy through a number of initiatives. Sentient Science’s DigitalClone Live Software as a Service, builds a material science-based DigitalClone model of each asset and predicts the life of each individual asset, its major systems and individual components. The forward visibility of knowing which assets will fail over 20+ years, when and where, enables the operator to build multiyear budgets and up-tower and down-tower component replacement forecasts, and other life extension actions. We work with the risk managers on warranty and insurance negotiations, new wind farm development and other business strategies. As a champion of the operator, we work with the wind turbine original equipment manufacturers and suppliers to computationally test their products, simulate trade off and sensitivity studies and make life extension recommendations to ensure optimal performance. Sentient’s Buy on Life business model provides the operator with the component life prediction of the supplier offerings, facilitates better terms and condition agreements and enables supply chain automation.
Sentient Science began in 2001 as an R&D initiative backed by the U.S. Department of Defense as part of the Materials Genome Initiative to lower the cost of servicing equipment. The world’s largest operators the DOD and the U.S. Department of Energy invested more than $25 million in the DigitalClone software over a 10-year period, including work on the Apache, Blackhawk Helicopter, V22 Osprey and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The technology was validated by NASA in 2010 and commercially launched in the wind energy market in 2014, when the company was honored by the White House with the Tibbetts Award. In the last 24 months, Sentient Science now has 20,000 assets under contract and was honored for its commercial growth and momentum by Bloomberg New Energy Finance with the 2016 Pioneer’s Award. Sentient received its first round of investment funding from TOBA Capital in 2015, which is helping the company’s global expansion and plans to be monitoring 50,000 rotating assets by 2017 and 1 million assets beyond energy by 2020. For more information, visit www.SentientScience.com
MEDIA CONTACT
ACCIONA
Press Office. Tel. (+34) 91 663 06 57 / 31 14 / 07 53
gabinetedeprensa@acciona.es
SENTIENT SCIENCE
Press Office. Tel. +1 716.572.1549
jszpylman@sentientscience.com