Performance evaluation of Jepirachi Wind Park

Alvaro Pinilla
a,
*
, Luis Rodriguez
b
, Rodrigo Trujillo
b
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, Universidad de Los Andes, Cra 1 Este No. 18 A 10, Bogota, Colombia
b
Generation Planning Management Ofce, Empresas Publicas de Medellin, Medellin, Colombia
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 17 December 2007
Accepted 7 April 2008
Available online 2 July 2008
Keywords:
Wind energy
Wind parks
Wind turbines
Wind electricity generation
a b s t r a c t
This paper presents some technical details, operational experiences, and lessons learnt by the Colombian
public utility Empresas Pu blicas de Medelln with a recently installed 19.5 MW wind park in the
northern region of Colombia province of La Guajira. This is the rst ever wind park feeding to the
electricity network in Colombia. The Jepirachi Wind Park was commissioned in April 2004 and it has to
date accumulated nearly 180,000 h of operation. During that time 15 NORDEX N60/1.3 MW turbines have
fed electricity to the Colombian main electricity grid. This work describes the park layout, including
meteorological stations installed in the surroundings and the wind regime prevailing in the zone. Details
are also given about remote monitoring of the Wind Park and individual turbines, through the Super-
visory, Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA Nordex Control 2). Since July 2004, Empresas
Pu blicas de Medelln (EEPPM) and Universidad de Los Andes-Bogota , Colombia have been working to-
gether in a wind park performance monitoring programme. This has permitted both institutions to learn
more rapidly matters relating to evaluation, planning and operation of wind parks exposed to extreme
climatic conditions like those present in the semi-desert region of the Guajira. This work describes the
wind park operation, where individual wind turbines have yielded monthly production capacity factors
as high as 6575%; values which are high when compared to similar turbines installed elsewhere. Ac-
cordingly, levels of electrical energy production of up to 1750 kWh/m
2
-year per turbine have been
measured, exceeding typical values reported in the wind energy literature. A series of operational and
technical troubles have become evident, which are related to some of the particular features of the
climate and the wind regime at the site of the Jepirachi Wind Park. Because of these local features it is
suggested that a greater level of uncertainty (limiting the validity of methods and hypotheses) may exist
in the study and planning of future wind parks in regions such as La Guajira.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
During 1998, Empresas Pu blicas de Medelln
1
(EEPPM)
undertook, within the framework of its business planning for
energy generation, an in depth study of the technological,
competitive and environmental advantages of wind energy. Wind
energy is an appealing technological option with broad possibil-
ities for electricity production in the medium and long-term in
Colombia. Following the analysis of world energy markets, and
taking into account the evidence of a huge wind energy potential
in the Colombian Caribbean region EEPPM decided to develop an
ambitious general R&D programme for the implementation of
this technology in Colombia. Such a programme consists of three
main components: wind regime evaluation, study of tax
incentives and the normative framework for renewable energy
development in Colombia and the development of a wind energy
pilot project for an adequate technological penetration and
transfer of knowledge.
2. General characteristics of Jepirachi Wind Park
Jepirachi Wind Park [3] is located in the northernmost part of
Colombia in the Province of Guajira (latitude: 12

N, longitude:
72

E). The wind park consists of 15 wind turbines NORDEX N60/

2501300, with a total installed capacity of 19.5 MW rated power.
Each wind turbine has a 60 m rotor diameter and 60 m tower. The
turbines are distributed into two rows of 8 (windward row) and 7
(leeward row) wind turbines, each. The area occupied by the wind
park is rectangular, approximately 1 km wide and 1.2 km long
(along the shore). Fig. 1 sketches the physical layout of park, note
that the average distance between turbines in the same row is
180 m (3 rotor diameters 3D), and the distance between rows
is approximately 1 km (19 rotor diameters 19D). The terrain is
almost at, with the largest topographical height difference being
about 20 m.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 571 3324322; fax: 571 3324323.
E-mail address: apinilla@uniandes.edu.co (A. Pinilla).
1
EEPPM is the largest Colombian public utility.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Renewable Energy
j ournal homepage: www. el sevi er. com/ l ocat e/ renene
0960-1481/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2008.04.015
Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 4852
Winds prevailing in the zone of Jepirachi are the northeast
trade winds, whose annual prevailing direction is from the
EastNortheast direction; therefore the rows of turbines are
oriented 10

North, perpendicular to the annual prevailing wind

direction.
In the vicinity, three meteorological stations are installed,
namely: Kasiwolin, Parque, and Arutkjui. Meteorological stations
Kasiwolin and Arutkjui have been registering wind regime data
since December 2000. Station Kasiwolin registers windspeed,
direction and ambient temperature at 50 m and windspeeds at 20
and 10 m height. Station Arutkjui registers windspeed and
direction at 20 m and windspeed at 10 m height. Meteorological
station Parque was installed by the German company WindGuard
[7] for the verication of the power curve performance at turbine 4.
It is worth mentioning the importance of having meteorological
information of this kind, particularly since they have been regis-
tering information prior to the installation and during the rst 15
months of operation of the Wind Park. This has yielded, rst hand
knowledge of the inuence of the wake produced by the windward
row of turbines upon the electricity production, and its incidence
on the efciency and performance, on the leeward row of turbines
(turbines 915, Fig. 1).
The turbines are interconnected with an underground network
of 13.8 kV voltage, which conducts the electrical power produced to
the substation located at the center of South side of the park. The
park substation has a 110 kV transformer and the electricity is fed
into tower # 20 of the Colombian electricity grid line known as
Cuestecitas Puerto Bolivar.
3. Technical characteristics of turbines
The technical characteristics of NORDEX turbines are to be
found elsewhere [1]. The NORDEX N60 turbine operates at two
speeds, it has two generators a 6-pole 250 kW and an 8-pole
1300 kW, and they can be switched between the two modes as the
windspeed changes. Note that at varying operational conditions,
the wind rotor runs from 12.8 rpm to 19.8 rpm. The rotor power
control is through stall regulation.
Turbine 4 was subjected to tests for the verication of the
electrical powerwindspeed curve. Fig. 2 illustrates the power
curve as measured on turbine 4, at the park in accordance with the
Standard IEC 61400-12 [7]. The power curve in Fig. 2 depicts
electrical power output of 10-min average values for each
windspeed bin-width of 0.5 m/s. Turbine 4 was tested between
March and July 2004.
The average climatological conditions during the test period and
reported by Westermann [7] were:
Local air density: 1.16 kg/m
3
Local barometric pressure: 1010 mBar
Environment temperature: between 298 K and 306 K
Average turbulence intensity at the site (10-min values): 7.5%
The Jepirachi Wind Park is provided with a Supervision, Control
and Data Acquisition system (SCADA Nordex Control 2-NC2), which
remotely monitors park electricity production as well as for
individual turbines. It indicates alarms and events, operational
parameters of the turbines and all the auxiliary equipment; the
substation and the meteorological tower Parque. The SCADA NC-2
allows the carrying out of control actions upon the equipment and it
serves as a tool for analysis and is able to report in different time
scales of park operation. The system updates information every 3 s
and it can be accessed, via Internet, from the Control Center of
EEPPM in Medelln, at the park cabin control room, in Germany in
Nordex headquarters, and at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota .
4. Wind regime at Jepirachi Site
Average windspeed for the period of operation between March
2004 and July 2005 was 9.2 m/s. Windspeed estimation is carried
out, based upon the information of the meteorological tower
Arutkjui, located 500 m windward of the park. Windspeed is cor-
rected to 60 m height, since the anemometers are located at 10 and
20 m height, as mentioned before.
Height correction is carried out based on 10-min average
windspeed data at 10 and 20 m height, using the simple model for
the vertical wind prole [2], as:
V
60m
V
20m
_
60 m
20 m
_
a
(1)
Nomenclature
c Weibull scale parameter
k Weibull shape parameter
x Horizontal distance (m)
C
T
Thrust coefcient
D Windrotor diameter (m)
K Wake decay factor
P(v) Weibull probability density function
V, v Windspeed (m/s)
a Vertical wind prole exponent
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
0,0 2,0 4,0 6,0 8,0 10,0 12,0 14,0 16,0 18,0 20,0
Windspeed (m/s)
E
l
e
c
t
r
i
c

P
o
w
e
r

(
k
W
)
Fig. 2. Electric powerWindspeed curve measured at turbine 4 [7].
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
North
11
12
13
14
15
LEEWARD ROW
KASIWOLIN
PARQUE
WINDWARD ROW
ARUTKJUI
Fig. 1. Spatial layout of wind turbines and meteorological towers at Jepirachi [5] not
to scale numbers correspond to wind park turbine identication.
A. Pinilla et al. / Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 4852 49
As well as using the correlation for the power law as a function
of velocity and height, calculated as:
a
0:37 0:088 lnfV
20m
g
1 0:088 ln
_
20 m
10 m
_ (2)
Monthly average windspeed at Jepirachi (60 m height) exceeds
12 m/s in January, May, June and July; consequently the respective
Weibull shape parameters (k) reach values between 4 and 5.
Months with lower average windspeed are September and October
with monthly average windspeed between 6 and 6.5 m/s and the
Weibull shape parameter (k) values are around 2.
It is worth indicating that wind conditions in Jepirachi site are
extremely favourable for the operation of turbines. For several
months the wind is persistent and it has low turbulence intensity
(between 7% and 12%). Consequently, turbines are operating with
low vibration levels, in addition to maintaining large electricity
generation. Weibull shape parameters between 3 and 5 imply that
the windspeed remains between 4 and 18 m/s, most of the time. So
far, meteorological measurements do not show wind gust,
something that is also highly recommended for park operation, as
a general rule.
For the evaluation period between March 2004 and July 2005,
windspeed data is also processed from the Kasiwolin meteoro-
logical tower, resulting in an average windspeed of 8.4 m/s.
Kasiwolin is in the wake of the park at 785 m (13D) of the leeward
row (see Fig. 1). It is interesting to mention that by analyzing the
windspeed data series between January 2003 and March 2004 in
both stations, before the installation of Jepirachi Wind Park at the
site, no meaningful difference was found in either behavior or
magnitude.
Wake effect of the park shows differences in the magnitude of
windspeed between 1 and 2 m/s, depending on the month of the
year, when windspeed information is compared between these two
meteorological towers. The differences found are similar to those
reported in the SCADA NC2, when comparing the windspeed, just
behind every wind rotor. Needless to say, that SCADA NC2 reports
windspeed measurements at the nacelle of each turbine.
5. Jepirachi Wind Park energy production
Between April 2004 and July 2005 (14.5 months), 160,000 h of
operation are accounted for the 15 turbines. During this period the
park fed 70.4 GWh to the electricity grid, representing an overall
park capacity factor of 38% and availability of 96%. Capacity factor
(also known as plant factor) is understood here as the ratio of
electrical energy produced to the product of park rated power
installed by the number of hours of the period of evaluation; and
availability is understood as the ratio between the number of real
hours of electricity generation by the wind turbines to the number
of hours that the windspeed is between the operation limits of the
turbines [5].
By analyzing the performance of individual turbines during 14.5
months of evaluation, capacity factors vary between 34% and 42%,
with the lowest capacity factor found in turbine 10 and the largest
in turbine 8. Turbine 10 is located in the leeward row of the park
and it is inuenced, most of the year, by the wake produced by
turbines 14. Turbine 8 is located closest to the shore and receives
undisturbed wind, being the turbine with the least perturbation of
the whole park. Turbines 5, 6, 7 and 15 present capacity factors
between 39% and 40%, for the period of 14.5 months.
It is worth noting that for each turbine, the total hours of service
since commissioning is nearly 10,200 h over 14.5 months and that
they have produced electricity for between 8000 and 9000 h. This
availability is high when compared with wind parks installed in
other parts of the world. It should be mentioned, that between
8900 and 9500 h, the windspeed is within 4 and 18 m/s for the
period of evaluation, reported here.
Differences of capacity factor between turbines and corre-
sponding hours of energy production are related with spatial wind
distribution within the park. They are also due to maintenance
periods, damage presented in bearings, network failures, etc.
6. Individual performance of turbines
As a result of verication of the power curve performance
measured in the turbine 4, EEPPM and NORDEX agreed upon to the
modifying of the pitch angle of each blade in turbine 5. The
modication was carried out in February 2005, so as to test for
possible improvement in turbine performance. After 5 months of
operation, turbine 5 has shown an improvement in energy
conversion as compared to the previous months before changing
the blade pitch angle.
The turbine 8 has shown the largest capacity factor, as well as
turbines 5, 6, 7, 14 and 15 have presented monthly capacity factors
up to 76% in the months with highest average windspeed, a large
value in comparison with monthly capacity factors reported in
other wind parks elsewhere.
Fig. 3 compares monthly capacity factors for turbines 8 and 5
between May 2004 and May 2005, note the performance improve-
ment in turbine 5 since February 2005. During the months with
lower windspeed, monthly capacity factors are greatly diminished.
7. Theoretical prediction of turbine capacity factor
It is useful for the operation of wind turbines alone and wind
parks as a whole, to have calculation tools to estimate and predict
electricity generation. For this purpose it is customary to have wind
data information and then adjust it with the Weibull density
probability function. With information reduced with the Weibull
distribution through its shape and scale parameters k and c, the
effective electricity production can be estimated for diverse periods
of time.
With the purpose of estimating the electricity production for
a given period of time, the power curve performance, as measured
by WindGuard [7], is used. The electricity production is calculated,
as follows:
Energy Produced in Period T T
_
Vout
V
in
Pvf vdv (3)
where P(v) corresponds to electrical power curve as a function of
windspeed (v) and f(v) is the Weibull probability density function
[4]. Limits of integration correspond to cut-in and cut-out
windspeed of the turbine.
M
A
Y
J
U
N
J
U
L
A
U
G
S
E
P
O
C
T
N
O
V
D
E
C
J
A
N
F
E
B
M
A
R
A
P
R
M
A
Y
Months 2004-2005
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
C
a
p
a
c
i
t
y

F
a
c
t
o
r

(
)
Turbine 5
Turbine 8
Fig. 3. Monthly capacity factors May 2004May 2005 comparison turbines 5 and 8.
A. Pinilla et al. / Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 4852 50
Dimensionless curves were prepared showing capacity factor
against the windspeed ratio (i.e., ratio of the turbine rated
windspeed to a reference average windspeed).
Calculation is made for turbine capacity factor, varying the
Weibull shape parameter (k) between 1.75 and 5. Fig. 4 illustrates
the theoretical capacity factor calculated for the Nordex Turbine
(measured at the site) versus windspeed ratio, as mentioned in
a previous paragraph.
In order to compare the theoretical estimation and the real
capacity factor of individual turbines, Fig. 5 was prepared repre-
senting monthly capacity factors of individual wind turbines in
the windward row of Jepirachi, those unaffected by wake effects.
Average windspeed used in this analysis, corresponds to
corrected monthly average measured windspeed in the meteo-
rological station Arutkjui. In order to compare the real capacity
factor for wind turbines, the theoretical calculated curves of
capacity factor are superimposed for values of Weibull shape
parameter (k 3 and 5). Note the close t that exists between the
theoretical estimation and the real capacity factor of individual
wind turbines.
8. Analysis of wake effects in Jepirachi Wind Park
A relevant concern for estimating the energy production at the
Jepirachi Wind Park is to fully understand the wake effect of the
windward row upon its leeward counterpart. This is mainly due to
a major difference in the annual energy production estimated
during the wind park planning process and the real energy
produced [6].
Hence a simple model of wake effect is used to simulate the
effect on leeward turbines. Windspeed data from the Arutkjui
meteorological Station is also used as well as the power perfor-
mance curve provided by WindGuard.
For estimating the electrical energy production, the diminished
windspeed in the wake is considered, using a simple theoretical
two-dimensional model, as illustrated by Manwell [2]. The reduced
wake windspeed (V
WAKE
) is calculated as follows:
V
WAKE
V
_
1
_
1

1 C
T
_
_
_
D
D 2Kx
_
2
_
(5)
where V is the 10-min average windspeed in Arutkjui corrected to
60 m height, C
T
is the turbine thrust coefcient reported by Potzka
[6], D is the rotor diameter (D60 m) and x is the horizontal
distance between turbine rows, taken as 900 m. This is the
approximate horizontal distance between rows of turbines. Factor
K takes into account the turbulence intensity which at Jepirachi is
assumed here to be 7.5%.
Arutkjui wind data monthly series are utilized for calculating
the corresponding speed in the wake and then the electrical energy
production is estimated in the leeward row.
Fig. 6 illustrates the theoretical estimation of electrical energy
production of a turbine, considering the calculated windspeed in
the wake and it is compared with real monthly energy production
of turbines 10 and 15 at the leeward row.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0,0 0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0
Nordex Rated Wind Speed/Average Wind Speed
C
a
p
a
c
i
t
y

F
a
c
t
o
r
k=1,75 k=2,0 k=2,25 k=2,5 k=2,75
k=3,0 k=3,25 k=3,5 k=4,25 k=5,0
Fig. 4. Nordex turbine theoretical capacity factor vs. dimensionless windspeed ratio
for various Weibull wind regimes.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0,00 0,25 0,50 0,75 1,00 1,25 1,50 1,75 2,00 2,25 2,50
Nordex Rated Wind Speed/Monthly Arutkjui Average Wind Speed
C
a
p
a
c
i
t
y

F
a
c
t
o
r
3 1 4 5
6 7 8 K=5 K=3
Fig. 5. Comparison of real and theoretical monthly capacity factor for windward in-
dividual turbines at Jepirachi Wind Park.
0
100.000
200.000
300.000
400.000
500.000
600.000
700.000
M
A
Y
J
U
N
J
U
L
A
U
G
S
E
P
O
C
T
N
O
V
D
E
C
J
A
N
F
E
B
M
A
R
Month of Year 2004-2005
M
o
n
t
h
l
y

E
n
e
r
g
y
-
k
W
h
Turbine 10
Wake simulation
Turbine 15
Fig. 6. Comparison of monthly energy production between turbines 10, 15 (leeward
row) and the theoretical wake simulation for Nordex turbine.
A. Pinilla et al. / Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 4852 51
Fig. 6 shows that the theoretical estimation of energy
production, using the simple wake effect model, ts closely to
monthly real energy production of turbine 10.
9. Conclusions
Jepirachi Wind Park is not a conventional project for generation
and commercialization of energy, with criteria of economical sus-
tainability. It is a pilot project, associated with an R&D programme,
with the purpose of technology transfer and understanding for
future wind energy projects in Colombia. Further work is required in
a second phase of the monitoring of performance, in order to better
understand wake effects and general operation of wind parks.
Although modern wind turbines have been designed and
developed to work in a wide range of climatic and wind conditions,
some regions may present particular features like those experi-
enced in the Caribbean region that, may, either, affect their
designed lifetime, or, also may require technological adjustments
so as to obtain superior power performance to those achieved
currently worldwide. An invitation is opened to wind energy
manufacturers and investors to look for an interesting option in the
development of solutions more suitable for tropical and Caribbean
conditions.
In the particular case of Jepirachi Wind Park, technological and
operational difculties have emerged and they have been identied
and understood. To mention but a few, for instance, the highest air
temperature registered in the cabin of the turbines nacelle up to
52

C, caused early failure in small electronic control circuitry,
consequently uncontrolled and frequent stoppage of turbines, the
cabin high temperature also caused premature generator front-end
bearing damages. This required additional ventilation by NORDEX
in the turbines nacelle, through large openings to increase the air
owin the nacelle cabin. Other damages that have occurred are the
fracture of the blade tip material due to high level of lightning,
typical of this region. Solutions have been possible thanks to the
capacity and personnel support from highly specialized groups at
EEPPM and Universidad de Los Andes.
The future perspective for wind energy use on a larger scale in
Colombia is shown to be quite attractive, mainly owing to the huge
wind resource and the technological challenges to accommodate
turbines especially designed for the Colombian Caribbean region
and neighbouring countries. Nonetheless, wind electricity
production is not yet an economical option in Colombia, and it is
necessary to precisely dene the real possibilities of this technol-
ogy; as well as to work, hand in hand, with the appropriate
authorities in state policies around tax incentives and normative
framework to control the development of renewable energies in
Colombia.
References
[1] NORDEX Energy. Nordex N-60 technical description 19982002. Germany:
Nordex Energy GmbH; 2002.
[2] Manwell JF, et al. Wind energy explained theory, design and application. New
York: John Wiley & Sons; 2002.
[3] Pela ez J, et al. Jepirachi Wind Park: planning and construction of the project in
Revista Empresas Pu blicas de Medelln, vol. 5. No. 1, JanuaryJune; 2004. p.
1013 (in Spanish).
[4] Pinilla A. Lecture notes of a wind energy course. Bogota , Colombia: Department
of Mechanical Engineering Universidad de Los Andes; 2004 (in Spanish).
[5] Pinilla A. Report of performance analysis of Jepirachi Wind Park April
2004June 2005, Contract 0013794 Empresas Pu blicas de Medelln E.S.P.
Bogota : Universidad de los Andes; August 2005. 50 pp. (in Spanish).
[6] Potzka G. Power curve and AEP analysis Jepirachi report, Colombia, 28.01.05.
Germany: Nordex Energy; 2005.
[7] Westermann D, Deutsche WindGuard, power curve measurement report
Turbine Nordex N60-1300 (turbine 4). Location: La Guajira, Colombia. Report
Number MP04002, Varel, Germany; 19 August 2004.
A. Pinilla et al. / Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 4852 52