Ocean Energy - Practical Cases-2019

Practical Cases
Wave energy project developments
Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 1

Index
On-shore Case – Mutriku OWC Plant

• Building
• Operation
Off-shore Case –BiMEP Test Site
• Design process
• Operation
• Investments

Mutriku OWC Plant
Background
Narrow mouth of the harbour
• Incidents
• Bussiness losses
• Interior roughness
A new breakwater was

proposed to address those
problems

Mutriku OWC Plant
Initial solution
Detached rubble mound
breakwater
• 440m long
• 16m high
• 370m Access road

Mutriku OWC Plant
Initial solution

Mutriku OWC Plant
New challenge
Can the new infrastructure be used to generate power?
Restriction
Respect initial purpose of breakwater

Mutriku OWC Plant
Available energy capacity at site

Undefined dephts
• Average energy flow 26 kW/m
• Strong saesonal change: Winter 44 kW/m
Summer 9 kW/m
Off Mutriku, 30 m depht

• Average energy flow 11 kW/m
• Strong saesonal change: Winter 18 kW/m
Summer 4,4 kW/m

Mutriku OWC Plant
Chosen technology

Mutriku OWC Plant
Alteration required on the design

To ensure that the waves reached the
chambers, we brought the haunch forward to
the foot of the rockfill.

Mutriku OWC Plant
Breakwater modified project
Changes for the integration

• 100m long
• To retire the main mantle of 25t blocks
• To construct a vertical seawall
• For housing 16 air columns (chambers)
New restriction:
To build this section with the resources
that had been contracted for the first
design

Mutriku OWC Plant
Options to place the OWC plant

Left section Curved section Straight section

Mutriku OWC Plant
Laboratory test to know

Energy aim
• Max. energy captured
Functional aim
• Interior roughness
• Navigability to access
• Overtopping waves
Structural aim
• Pressure on caissons

Mutriku OWC Plant
First “commercial” wave project all over the world

Multiturbine configuration – also pioneer.

Mutriku OWC Plant
Erection process
To build each chamber piling 16 precasted sections from the “head”
of the breakwater.
To retire the main mantle of 25t blocks and fill the gap and advance

Mutriku OWC Plant

Mutriku OWC Plant
Chamber precastted pieces

• Trapezoidal shaped pieces:
length : 12.25m
sides: 6.10m y 5.80m
edge: 0.80m
beam thickness: 0.40 – 0.50m
• 2 - 3 empty cells, for lightness of the
piece and “monolithicity” of the full
chamber
• Reinforced concrete HA-35
• Weight: 45 t.
• 4 through-pipes for lifting
Mutriku OWC Plant
16 chamber precastted pieces

First four pieces of each column:
• For the opening of the chamber
• From level -3.40m to -0.20m
The twelve remaining parts

• For the close chamber parts
• From level -0’20m a 9’60m

Mutriku OWC Plant
Chamber precastted pieces

• The parts were prefabricated in
an area on site
• 8 units at a time
• HA-35/P/20/IIIc+Qb with CEM
III/A 32,5 MR cement
• Formwork removed after 3 days
• Manufacture and storage during
the winter

Mutriku OWC Plant
Positioning the pieces

• Below 0.00 level: difficulties
• Waves <0.5m
• Diving assisted positioning
• Deviation in positioning: +/- 4cm
• Fast and easy above 0.00m
• Column consolidation and joining
• Filling the front, middle and rear cells
with reinforced concrete
• Vertical joins: submerged concrete,
with PVC 400 tubes filled with
reinforced concrete as permanent
framework.

Mutriku OWC Plant
Positioning the pieces

Mutriku OWC Plant
Electro-mechanical equipment
Turbogenerators: 16 x 18’5 kW.
• Wells Turbine:
• Fixed-pitch
• Double rotor
• 5 blades per rotor
• Simetric design, harness both in and
out air flow
• Sweet water injection to clean blades
• 450V asynchronous generators.
• Air cooled
• The rotation speed of the turbine is set
depending on the pressure to get the
maximum energy.
Mutriku OWC Plant
Minimising the equipment expose to salt

Small hut to house the control and transforming equipment for the
plant, so that the electronic equipment could be kept well away
from the wet saline atmosphere inside the turbine gallery

Mutriku OWC Plant
Economic and energy figures

Installed capacity 296kW
Annual output 300.000kWh
Extra cost of
Civil works 4,4 M€
Electromechanical equipment 1,5 M€
Others (permits, tests, …) 0,5 M€
Economic backing from the European

Commission's FP6
Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019

Mutriku OWC Plant
Turbine galery
The turbines are housed in a 96m long
galery, above the air chambers.
8 mufflers to reduce the noise emission.

Mutriku OWC Plant
Mutriku wave power plant once finished

Mutriku OWC Plant
First mishap
During a storm in December 2011
• No damage at/in the turbine galery
• Control hut flodded:
• To repare damaged doors
• To install aditional outern doors
• To substitute damaged equipment

Mutriku OWC Plant
First year of operation
Start-up and adjustments to the plant

Energía Energía
Año Mes importada exportada
(kWh) (kWh)
2011 Jun 2.447 3.888 Plant becomes operational
2011 Jul 2.864 5.919
2011 Ago 2.810 3.994
2011 Sep 2.994 20.808
2011 Oct 1.366,00 32.261,50
2011 Nov 599,00 35.105,45 Storm damage.
2011 Dic 652,00 33.846,77
2012 Ene 133,00 0,00 Repairs.
2012 Feb 1.708,00 0,00
2012 Mar 1.579,00 20.272,44
2012 Abr 595,00 33.053,17
2012 May 3.954,00 9.013,60 Plant becomes operational again
21.701,00 198.161,93
Problems arise: lower power generation

and greater consumption levels

Mutriku OWC Plant
First year of operation
Production figures in May fell
dramatically
¿Fairer weather conditions?
Further investigation revealed:
• repeated turbine shutdown
• difficulties in starting it up again
Cause: Breakage of the rubber
components of the damper drive
motor.
Explanatión:
After long time stored (almost 3 year) waiting to be installed, the
condition of the rubber components had deteriorated.
Mutriku OWC Plant
Flaw in the breakwater

Structural failures appeared
after winter 2009.
Faults appeared in the air
chambers in the wave plant.
Four chambers were affected
One of them was completely

missing its outer wall.
The turbine gallery, which
runs above the chambers, is
still intact.

Mutriku OWC Plant
Possible causes
Large storms.
• Data series 1990-2005
Design wave 7.7m
• Data series 1990-2009

Design wave 9.2m

Mutriku OWC Plant
Possible causes (2)

Non monolithic design
• First design with no OWC plant
• Modified after tendering and contracting
• Plant design restriction :
• Had to be executed with the contracted
means and methods

Mutriku OWC Plant
Possible causes (3)

Unexpected stress suffered during execution:
• Torsion at lifting and transporting
• Knocking at the positioning
… may have caused small fissures

Mutriku OWC Plant
Implemented solution
Two priorities:
1. Stability of the plant
2. Wave energy harnessing
To build a new haunch attached to

the existing one
• Up to +10m
• 5 metres in width
• Keeping the chamber entrances
• As monolithic as possible

Mutriku OWC Plant
Gantry pieces positioning.
1. Clearing and dredging

2. Anchoring to the seabed
3. Levelling
4. Gantry piece positioning

Mutriku OWC Plant
Construction of new haunch.
1. Positioning the blocks and anchors

2. Concreting
3. Second block row positioning
4. Frame and anchors positioning
Lay up five rows of block to the

level +8.5m

Mutriku OWC Plant
Brace beam
• Along the whole front.
• From level +8.5m to +10m
• Incorporates wave buffer

bootstrap
Mutriku OWC Plant

Mutriku OWC Plant
First 5 year operation balance

More than 1,000,000kWh
exported to grid
Usually 12 turbine generating
Next target:
reach 300,000kWh/year
Unmanned plant
After 5 year, an overall review
has been needed, and many
components have been
changed

Mutriku OWC Plant
First 5 year operation balance

Maintenance issues
• Generator bearing
• Rotor blades corrosion and damages
• Emergency stop buttons
The part of the power plant that suffers the
most is the civil works

Mutriku OWC Plant
Next challenges
• To maximise power output
• Full scale testing of new turbines
• To be a reference on OWC technology
• Touristic use of the plant
• Awareness raising
No problems
Problems Possitive
N/A Negative

Mutriku OWC Plant
Mutriku as a test site

• Testing of a new turbine within the framework of th OPERA Project (H2020)
This project has received funding from the European

Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 654444

BiMEP Project

BiMEP Project
Wave energy technology development challenges

• Scientific/Technologic
• Physics of wave movement
• Change from mechanical energy to electricity
• Harsh environment
• Corrosion
• Extreme loads
• Economic
• High investment and O&M costs
• Uncertain pay-back
• Reaching the market in the long term, if so.
• Legal/Administrative
• Inexistent or not suited for purpose legal framework
• Need to demonstrate lack of environmental impact before any real
experience.
• Higher environmental requirement level than other fossil technologies

BiMEP Project
Technology development road

• Set stages to reduce risk
• Each stage requires increase the inversment
by one magnitude order
TRL 9
• At each stage some decisions are take and
parameters are fixed, discarding
technological alternatives
TRL 6 - 8
TRL 4 - 5
TRL 1 - 3

BiMEP Project
Existing infrastructures (year 2007)
EMEC (Orkney, UK)
Marine Institute (Galway, Irlanda)
Conexión a Red
Centro de Datos
Subestación propia
Videovigilancia
Cables submarinos
Boya Oleaje
Amarre
WEC
PILOT Zone (Portugal)

WAVE HUB (Cornwall, UK)
2008
BiMEP Project
¿Is there any gap/opportunity?
Basque Country
PORTUGAL
CHANCE
IRELAND EMEC WAVE HUB
TEST AND
SCALED FULL SCALE DEMONSTRATION COMERCIAL
LABORATORY PHASE
PROTOTYPES PROTOTYPES PHASE

BiMEP Project
To take in to account to design a test site

Ubicación
Site Elementos
Components
• Energy resource • Substation to connect to the grid
• Distance to coast • Transformation stage
• Distance to main ports • Offshore - onshore
• Seabed • Submarine cable
• Sand - rock
• Slope • Main connection unit
• On shore
• Grid connection possibility on
land • Submarine
• Existing grid • On existing offshore platform
• Submarine cable route to shore • Others…
• Environmental impact • Berth
• Other users of sea
BiMEP Project
EMEC: European Marine Energy Centre
–Orkney Islands, Scotland, UK
–Up and running since 2003
–Infrastructure to host testing on:
•Wave energy absorbers
•Current energy absorbers
–Subestation 11kV
–Grid connected berths
–Integral SCADA
–Fibre optic data transmission to allow
remote access
–Environmental, wave and current data base

BiMEP Project
Wave Hub
–Cornwall, Gales, UK
–Announced for 2008
–Infrastructure designed to host array
testing
–Sea área 10km far from coats
–4 berths, 5MW each
–4 submarine transformator 11/24
kV, 5MW

BiMEP Project
Phases to develop the infrastructure (2007)

Fase 1 Fase 2 Fase 3
Analisis
Other projects:
Wab Hub
EMEC
Portugal State of the art
Oregón (USA) and commun
knowledge
Irlanda report Conceptual design:
Generation and selection of
alternatives
Location selection
Atlas
Infrastructure Archituctural design:
conceptual design
Absorber analisis
Definition of specifications
Location analisis
Technical
specificatios
Estimated budget
Detailed design

BiMEP Project
Infrastructure scope definition
MINIMUM Infrastructure
• Offshore
• Grid connected Captador
Amarre
• Berths for full scale WECs

• Individual berths for only one
device
Subestación
• Infrastructure for testing and
demonstration, not commercial
phase

BiMEP Project

GENERACIÓN
MEDIUM Infrastructure
• Offshore
• Grid connected
• Individual berths for only one
device
ENSAYO
• Berths for arrays
• Infrastructure for testing,
demonstration and commercial Subestación
phase
• ¿Two work areas or only one?

BiMEP Project

GENERACIÓN
MAXIMUM Infrastructure
• Offshore
• Grid connected
• Individual and array berths Subestación
ENSAYO
• Infrastructure for testing,
demonstration and commercial
phase
• Three-four work areas
• ¼ scale testing ESCALA
• Full scale WEC testing
• Commercial explotation
• Environmental impact studies
FONDEOS
• Mooring …

BiMEP Project
Definition of infrastructure architecture
Definircomponents
What qué elementos
havedebe
to incorporate?
tener
• Substation for grid connection
• Transformation stage
• Offshore - onshore
• Submarine cables
• Main connectión unit (connection hub)
• On shore
• Off shore
• Submarine
• On a offshore platform
• Others …
• Mooring area

BiMEP Project

1. Main connection unit on onshore substation
Device
Berth
Substation

BiMEP Project

2. Submarine main connection unit
Device
Berth
Substation
Submarine
hub

BiMEP Project

3. Floating main conexión unit
Floating Hub
Substation
Device Berth
Grid connected
Device Berth
Non grid connected

BiMEP Project

4. Main connection unit on offshore infrastructure
Seabed fixed Hub

Substation
Device Berth

BiMEP Project

4. Main connection unit on offshore infrastructure v2.0

BiMEP Project

5. Main connection unit taking advantage of existing infrastructures
Oil platform
Substation
Device Berth

BiMEP Project
To take in to account to design a test site

Location
Location
• Energy resource
• Distance to coast
• Distance to main ports
• Seabed
• Sand - rock
• Slope
• Grid connection possibility on
land
• Existing grid
• Submarine cable route to shore
• Environmental impact
• Other users of sea
BiMEP Project
Possible locations: Close to Bilbao Port

Location
• Energy resource
• Main ports
• Seabed
• Sand - rock
• Slope
• Grid connection
• Existing grid
• Submarine cable route
• Other sea users

BiMEP Project
Possible locations: Donostia-Pasaia Port

Location
• Energy resource
• Main ports
• Seabed
• Sand - rock
• Slope
• Grid connection
• Existing grid
• Other sea users

BiMEP Project
Possible locations: Igeldo-Donostia detail

Location
• Energy resource
3
• Distance to coast 1 2
• Main ports
• Seabed
• Sand - rock
• Slope
• Grid connection
• Existing grid
• Other sea users

BiMEP Project
Possible locations: Gorliz-Lemoiz-Bakio

Location
• Energy resource
• Main ports
• Seabed
• Sand - rock
• Slope
• Grid connection
• Existing grid
• Other sea users

BiMEP BiMEP
Possible locations: Gorliz-Lemoiz-Bakio detail

Location
• Energy resource
• Main ports
• Seabed
• Sand - rock
• Slope
• Grid connection
• Existing grid
• Other sea users

BiMEP Project
Final location proposal: Armintza - Lemoiz

Location
• Energy resource
• Main ports
• Seabed
• Sand - rock
• Slope
• Grid connection
• Existing grid
• Other sea users

BiMEP Project
Dealing on final location: Armintza - Lemoiz

Location
• Energy resource
• Main ports
• Seabed
• Sand - rock
• Slope
• Grid connection
• Existing grid
• Other sea users

BiMEP Project
Final location and shape: Armintza - Lemoiz

Location
• Energy resource
• Main ports
• Seabed
• Sand - rock
• Slope
• Grid connection
• Existing grid
• Other sea users

BiMEP Project
Final location and characteristics: Armintza - Lemoiz

Location
• 4 cable, 20 MW, grid connected
• Energy resource • Environmental monitoring
• Distance to coast • Depths from 50 to 90m
• Surveillance and
• Main ports emergency respons 24/7
• Seabed • Fast access
• Sand - rock • Suitable wave climate
• Slope
• Grid connection
• Existing grid
• Other sea users

BiMEP Project
BiMEP Project presentation

BiMEP Project
BiMEP Project – Explanation

BiMEP Project
Operating at BiMEP – OPERA Project (H2020)

BiMEP Project
Investment to build the infraestructura
Power lines 13.2 kV 12 M€

• Submarine cables 3 M€
• Submarine cable installation 4 M€
• Horizontal drilling 2 M€
• Submarine conectors 1 M€
• Others 2 M€
Onshore substation 2’7 M€
Marking of the sea area 0’5 M€
Site engineering services 0’6 M€
Preliminary studies and works 2 M€

BiMEP Project
Biscay Marine Energy Platform www.bimep.com

Dorleta Marina dmarina@bimep.com

Ocean Energy - Practical Cases-2019

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Practical Cases

Wave energy project developments

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 1

On-shore Case – Mutriku OWC Plant

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 2

A new breakwater was

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 3

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 4

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 5

Can the new infrastructure be used to generate power?

Respect initial purpose of breakwater

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 6

Available energy capacity at site

Off Mutriku, 30 m depht

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 7

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 8

Alteration required on the design

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 9

Breakwater modified project

Changes for the integration

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 10

Options to place the OWC plant

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 11

Laboratory test to know

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 12

First “commercial” wave project all over the world

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 13

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 14

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 15

Chamber precastted pieces

16 chamber precastted pieces

The twelve remaining parts

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 17

Chamber precastted pieces

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 18

Positioning the pieces

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 19

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 20

Minimising the equipment expose to salt

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 22

Economic and energy figures

Economic backing from the European

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 24

Mutriku wave power plant once finished

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 25

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 26

First year of operation

Start-up and adjustments to the plant

Problems arise: lower power generation

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019

Flaw in the breakwater

One of them was completely

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 29

• Data series 1990-2009

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019 30

Possible causes (2)

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019

Possible causes (3)

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019

To build a new haunch attached to

Renewable energy sources Unit 6 Ocean Energy July, 2019

Gantry pieces positioning.