Minesto reaches record tidal power production levels in Faroe Islands

Swedish tidal energy developer Minesto has made progress on the optimisation of its DG100 tidal power plant in Faroe Islands, which is now delivering grid-compliant electricity at new record levels.

During electricity production runs over the last weeks Minesto’s DG100 power plant has delivered grid-compliant electricity at new record levels, the company said.

Also, the DG100 system now performs the full operational cycle fully automatic, including start, stop, and slack water turns, according to Minesto.

It can be operated and monitored from both the on-site control room and through secure remote connections.

Martin Edlund, CEO of Minesto, said: “The team is doing a great job in optimising the DG100 system’s performance. We have now completed a period in continuous operation mode where we have run the power plant in the full range of tidal speeds and surface conditions. It is very pleasing to state that we have reached new record levels in terms of power production performance.

“Peak electricity generation has been further increased, and average production over tidal cycles is well within expected levels. Finally, the quality of electricity delivered is grid-compliant with the utility company SEV’s standards.

“This provides further valuable technical data both for the ongoing third-party verification of electricity production and for the 1.2MW utility-scale system currently in development. It is also very valuable for the ongoing work with our large-scale business cases and their total output estimates”.

To remind, Minesto has recently delivered second DG100 tidal kite to the Faroe Islands and verified that its power production performance is aligned with simulated predictions.

The unit incorporates upgrades to improve performance and reliability based on experiences with the first unit, according to Minesto.

Moving ahead, the company will work with both DG100 systems in parallel to perform a wide range of production and optimisation runs, Edlund confirmed.

“The purpose of our operations in Vestmannasund has since the completion of commissioning and proof of performance been widened. We work on both yield optimisation and feeding crucial learnings into the ongoing scale-up to a 1.2 MW system”, Edlund cocluded.