Water Power Peer Review

OCGen Module Mooring Project

1 | Program Name or Ancillary Text

Jarlath McEntee
Ocean Renewable Power Company jmcentee@orpc.co November 1-3, 2011

eere.energy.gov

Purpose, Objectives, & Integration

Challenges
At present deploying, mooring and retrieval in fast moving water requires specialized equipment and expertise Expensive and limited equipment Project aims to define loadings on moored hydrokinetic structures, to develop innovative mooring systems, and to reduce cost associated with installation and retrieval

Programs mission and objectives

Better understanding of design issues Reduced cost and improved reliability Reduces LCOE Transferrable to other Marine Renewable systems

How This Project will be Integrated

Mooring system design integrated into ORPCs OCGen Power System projects for Maine and Alaska (Prototypes deployed 2013)

2 | Wind and Water Power Program

eere.energy.gov

Technical Approach
Identify the loads acting on the mooring system
Steady fluid loads Dynamic fluid loads Dynamic inertial loads

Scale model testing Collect geophysical and geotechnical data Design, build and deploy field size module
Design of OCGen sub-module Design of mooring system Deployment and monitoring of system

Design, build and acquire mooring system for full OCGen Power System
3 | Wind and Water Power Program eere.energy.gov

Quantify Loads on Mooring

RANS CFD (Flow 3D)

Provides steady state lift and drag behavior Computationally intense

4 | Wind and Water Power Program

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Quantify Loads on Mooring

Dynamic analysis of tethered systems

University of Washington (NNMREC)

0 Analytical Numerical 0

Z (m)

0 0

0 X (m)

5 | Wind and Water Power Program

eere.energy.gov

Quantify Loads on Mooring

ORCAFlex

6 | Wind and Water Power Program

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ORCAFlex Inputs

7 | Wind and Water Power Program

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Quantify Loads on Mooring

Scale model testing

8 | Wind and Water Power Program

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Plan, Schedule, & Budget

Schedule Initiation date: March 1, 2010 Planned completion date: August 8, 2013
This reflects an 18-month extension request due to NEPA review delay, which resulted in a schedule and space conflict requiring the relocation of the Mooring Project to an adjacent area in Cobscook Bay, Maine. Task 1: Load Modeling Task 2: Dynamic Stability Task 3: Dynamic Analysis of Mooring System Task 4: Scale Model Testing Task 5: Geophysical Surveys (through 03/06/2012)

Milestones for FY 10 and FY11

Go/no-go decision points for FY12 and FY13: None to date

Budget: No budget variances to date. Portion of the project budget expended to date: $276,123.78

Budget History
FY2009 DOE $0 Cost-share $0 DOE $222,274.25 FY2010 Cost-share $0 DOE $53,849.53 FY2011 Cost-share $0

9 | Wind and Water Power Program

eere.energy.gov

Accomplishments and Results

Successfully utilized a commercially available CFD code to predict fluid induced loads on the OCGen module
Modular, scalable modeling technique

Developed an analytical tool to predict the dynamic behavior of a tethered floating system in transient flows Identified limitations with a commercially available mooring design code and found path to address these Performed preliminary scale model tests Now gathering the required geophysical information for the proposed field test site, and beginning the design process for the field test module
10 | Wind and Water Power Program eere.energy.gov

Accomplishments and Results

Milestone 1 Load modeling 2 Dynamic Stability 3 Dynamic analysis of Mooring System 4 Scale Model Testing 5 Geophysical Surveys 6 Cable & anchor design 7 Mooring experiment 8 Design of OCGen Mooring System 9 Reporting

Completion Date July 2011 July 2011 July 2011 July 2011 March 2012 September 2012 October 2012 August 2013 September 2013

11 | Wind and Water Power Program

eere.energy.gov

Challenges to Date

Understanding and providing accurate inputs for the ORCAFlex code (apparent mass, etc)
Investigating other analysis codes

Collecting adequate geophysical and geotechnical site data at a reasonable cost

Working with universities and contractors to improve our interpretation skills and to identify improved means of site investigation (CPTu, etc)

Project received NEPA categorical exemption 14 months after project start date.
Rescheduled project activities

12 | Wind and Water Power Program

eere.energy.gov

Next Steps

Completion of Analysis for OCGen sub-module Design of cable and mooring system for sub-module Field deploy, test and monitor a sub-module for 3 months (starting June 2012) Design of a full scale mooring system for the OCGen power system (Fall 2012) Procurement and installation of OCGen Power System (Spring 2013)

13 | Wind and Water Power Program

eere.energy.gov

Next Steps
Utilization of alternative codes to Flow-3D and ORCAFlex
AQWA

Need exists for a more reliable geophysical interpretation methodology

14 | Wind and Water Power Program

eere.energy.gov