ACAN - Wind farms icing model development and validation

The objective of this contract is to further develop and validate the icing model for wind farms developed by Environment Canada (EC) to predict production losses due to icing affecting the wind turbine’s performance. Instruments measuring data collected during two years (13/14 & 14/15) from at least three wind farms will be used to validate the EC icing model. Additionally, a comparison of the EC icing model predictions will be made with at least one icing forecasting model that is available on the market, such as the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model.

Areas that are most severely affected by the cold-climate issues are in Eastern Canada, primarily New Brunswick and Gaspe region of Quebec. CanmetENERGY and GDF SUEZ have commissioned ice detection sensors and meteorological sensors at the Caribou Wind Park, NB, and a large amount of meteorological and icing data have been collected. These data are available and shall be used by the Contractor to validate the EC icing model. In order to better evaluate the adaptability of the EC model under various site and cold-climate conditions, meteorological and icing data from two additional sites are required, at least one of which must also have wind energy production data, thus the Contractor must have their own site data that are collected during two years (13/14 & 14/15) or shall be in position of acquiring reliable relevant data for two additional sites from a third party.