Offshore wind projects are set to play a crucial role in Australia’s renewable energy transition. While the sector is still in its early stages, insights from established international projects offer valuable guidance. A key area of focus is energy monitoring, which enhances operational efficiency, ensures grid stability and maximises power output.
The Importance of Energy Monitoring in Offshore Wind
Energy monitoring involves real-time tracking of electricity generation, turbine performance and environmental conditions. Given the complex environments and reliability demands of offshore wind farms, effective monitoring is essential.
Key Benefits of Energy Monitoring:
Optimising Turbine Performance:
Performance data analysis helps operators identify underperforming turbines and implement necessary adjustments.
Ensuring Grid Stability:
Accurate monitoring facilitates seamless integration of wind energy with the grid, mitigating intermittency challenges.
Minimising Downtime:
Predictive maintenance strategies reduce the risk of unexpected outages and improve overall efficiency.
Global Best Practices in Energy Monitoring
1. Real-Time Data Integration
Leading offshore wind farms, particularly in Europe, employ advanced monitoring systems to integrate real-time data from turbines, substations and weather conditions. This enables:
Dynamic Output Adjustments:
Aligning generation with real-time grid demand.
Improved Forecasting:
Leveraging data-driven models to predict energy generation based on wind patterns.
2. Cloud-Based Monitoring Solutions
Cloud-based energy monitoring platforms enable seamless data collection, storage and access across multiple offshore assets. These solutions provide:
Remote Accessibility:
Operators can monitor wind farm performance from anywhere, ensuring real-time oversight and decision-making.
Scalability:
Cloud platforms easily accommodate new turbines and infrastructure as offshore projects expand.
Enhanced Collaboration:
Cloud-based dashboards allow multiple stakeholders, including grid operators and maintenance teams, to access data in real-time.
REST API Integration:
Cloud services that support REST API allow seamless connectivity between monitoring systems, third-party analytics platforms and grid management solutions. This ensures efficient data exchange for real-time power quality analysis, forecasting and regulatory reporting.
Power Quality Data Monitoring:
Offshore wind projects must comply with Australian grid requirements, including harmonics, flicker and voltage variations, as outlined in AS/NZS 61000-4-30. Cloud-based systems with power quality analytics support compliance with Western Australia’s South West Interconnected System (SWIS) and Northern Territory electricity standards.
3. Advanced SCADA Systems with IEC 61850 and GOOSE Messaging
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems play a central role in offshore wind monitoring, collecting and analysing data from all wind farm components to provide actionable insights for performance optimisation. Advanced SCADA systems include:
IEC 61850 Communication Protocols:
Offshore wind SCADA systems must support IEC 61850, ensuring standardised data exchange across all substation components.
GOOSE Messaging for Fast Event Responses:
Generic Object Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) messaging enables ultra-fast communication between protection relays, turbines and substations. This is crucial for fault detection and response in offshore environments, reducing downtime and preventing cascading failures.
Integration with Asset Health Monitoring:
SCADA systems collect real-time data on breaker status, transformer performance and grid synchronisation to enhance offshore wind farm reliability.
4. Compliance with International Standards
Standards such as IEC 61400-25 (Communication for Monitoring and Control of Wind Power Plants) and IEC 61850 (Communication Networks and Systems for Power Utility Automation) ensure system interoperability, reliability and data security across different monitoring platforms.
Opportunities for Australia’s Offshore Wind Sector
Australia’s emerging offshore wind industry can gain significant advantages by adopting global best practices in energy monitoring. Key opportunities include:
1. Leveraging Cloud-Based Analytics
Cloud computing enables centralised data analysis, improving energy output optimisation and maintenance forecasting. By harnessing cloud-based platforms, offshore wind operators can access high-resolution performance insights and automate reporting for compliance and efficiency.
2. Enhancing Grid Integration
Given the variable nature of offshore wind generation, real-time monitoring systems can assist grid operators in balancing supply and demand while mitigating issues like curtailment.
3. Data Security Risks
With increasingly sophisticated monitoring technologies, the risk of cyberattacks rises. Compliance with ISO 27001 (Information Security Management) can help protect critical energy infrastructure. In addition, storing energy monitoring data in Australian-based data centres ensures compliance with local data sovereignty laws, reducing exposure to foreign data regulations. As the Consumer Data Right (CDR) framework expands to the energy sector, offshore wind operators will need to implement robust security and privacy measures to protect consumer energy data. Ensuring encryption, access controls and secure cloud-based solutions will be critical for maintaining data integrity and meeting evolving Australian privacy requirements.
Challenges in Offshore Energy Monitoring
1. Harsh Environmental Conditions
Offshore wind farms must withstand extreme weather, saltwater corrosion and challenging accessibility. Monitoring equipment must meet industrial ratings for electrical metering, including IP66/IP67 enclosures for protection against water ingress and corrosion-resistant materials suitable for salt spray exposure. Components should comply with IEC 60068 for environmental durability and IEC 60529 for ingress protection. In addition, metering devices need to function reliably in high humidity, rapid temperature fluctuations and vibration-prone environments, ensuring accurate long-term performance without degradation.
2. High Deployment Costs
While advanced monitoring systems require significant upfront investment, integrating multifunctional devices can reduce overall costs. Devices capable of performing power quality monitoring, bay controller functions and synchrophasor measurements within a single platform significantly lessen the need for multiple systems, reducing installation space requirements and infrastructure complexity. As offshore wind projects face spatial constraints, compact and integrated metering solutions provide substantial cost savings in cabling, enclosures and commissioning efforts.
3. Supporting Regulatory Compliance and Renewable Energy Certification
Energy monitoring ensures adherence to Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) standards and Renewable Energy Target (RET) obligations. Offshore wind farms can also participate in the Large-Scale Generation Certificate (LGC) scheme, which requires precise data logging and verification to certify renewable energy production.
SATEC’s Role in Offshore Wind Energy Monitoring
Energy monitoring is fundamental to offshore wind success. SATEC’s PM180 modular platform provides a comprehensive solution for offshore wind applications, integrating power quality monitoring, bay control functions, synchrophasor measurement (PMU) and transient disturbance analysis in a single device. This modular architecture ensures scalability while reducing the need for multiple standalone systems, lowering both capital and operational expenditures.
As Australia seeks to diversify its renewable energy mix, deploying SATEC’s cutting-edge monitoring systems will be critical to unlocking the full potential of offshore wind projects, supporting power quality monitoring, fast transient detection and ensuring compliance with Australian energy regulations.
