— Achieving Data Analysis for Sustainable Business Management and Predictive Maintenance —
NTT COMWARE CORPORATION (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Masato Kuroiwa; hereinafter NTT COMWARE) and Cognite Japan (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Ryoichi Egawa; hereinafter Cognite Japan) have developed the Unified Analytics Dashboard for wind power producers and will launch the product on May 19. The Unified Analytics Dashboard centrally visualizes the power and revenue being generated by the power generation facilities of different manufacturers at multiple sites and the facilities' maintenance information.
This service will be provided as a new option on NTT COMWARE's Smart Data Fusion platform for the digital transformation (DX) of infrastructure facilities that analyzes and uses data in a digital twin space using AI modeling and other technology. The service was developed utilizing the knowledge of Cognite, headquartered in Norway, with their history of supporting European and American companies to build digital twins for production facilities and many dashboards for the management of wind farms.
Decarbonization is accelerating around the world. As Japan aims to generate 30% or more of its estimated power demand in 2050 from wind energy,1 wind energy and other renewable sources of energy are expected to grow significantly. However, the cost of generating electricity from wind remains high, and there are issues regarding the improvement of generation efficiency and the reduction of operating costs. One of the factors increasing costs is prolonged downtime due to slow component procurement because most of these power generation facilities use equipment manufactured overseas. Power producers must conduct the operations and maintenance (O&M) of their generation facilities properly over extended periods of time to ensure they can supply electricity stably and secure the viability of their business.
This service provides dashboards for management (mainly used by power producers) and operators (mainly used by O&M operators).
■ Management dashboard
This dashboard is capable of collecting and integrating data from power generation facilities in a variety of locations, and plan-specific and facility-specific reference and analysis of the data necessary for capital investment planning and management of power generation business, such as facility operation rates, revenue forecasts and the comparison of different facilities' generation losses. It also includes a bird detection dashboard that uses AI to count the number of birds flying around the wind turbines, allowing this information to be collected to be used in environmental assessments to prevent bird strikes through the use of archived video.
■ Operation dashboard
Wind speeds, the amount of power generated and alarms can be centrally referenced in real time, even when facilities are scattered around the country or made by different manufacturers. The dashboard detects abnormalities using digital twins and collected data, including from power generation and IoT sensors, triggering alarms when necessary. It can also be used for the early detection of abnormalities, predictive maintenance, etc. by incorporating the AI analysis model that the operator has already been using or their own models created using their accumulated maintenance knowledge and expertise. It prevents serious failures and problems and reduces downtime through proper maintenance.
Contributing to the development of this service:
・Sumitomo Corporation, an experienced power producer that has participated in various wind power generation projects in Europe and Japan,
・Sigma Power Janex Co., Ltd. with expertise in both the operation and maintenance of wind farms; and
・NTT Anode Energy Corporation, a core company in the NTT Group's promotion of its smart energy business, which develops renewable power sources and supplies renewable energy,
has contributed advice on the management and control of power generation facilities, making it possible to create specialized templates that meet the real needs of operators and increasing the practicality of the Unified Analytics Dashboard.
NTT COMWARE and Cognite will contribute to the establishment of a sustainable society by solving issues in the wind power generation industry through the provision of continuously improved smart maintenance solutions, including this service, that reflect the needs of users such as power producers and O&M operators.
1 Japan Wind Power Association (July 17, 2020) https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/energy_environment/yojo_furyoku/pdf/001_04_01.pdf
About Cognite
Established in Norway in 2016, Cognite is a SaaS company that provides Industrial DataOps platforms and applications to manufacturing, oil and gas, power and other large and important industries around the world and support for digital transformation through the full-fledged use of data. Cognite Data Fusion®, its DataOps platform, has been adopted by a number of manufacturers and utilities in their digital transformation. Cognite Japan was established in November 2019 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Cognite and a distribution, marketing and support base in Japan for Cognite Data Fusion®. https://www.cognite.com/ja-jp/
*Smart Data Fusion: A product in NTT COMWARE's SmartMainTech® series that aims to increase the sustainability and resilience of social infrastructure. Smart Data Fusion is data infrastructure that collects information about the management and operation of physical infrastructure facilities and 3D/real-time information and integrates this information into a digital twin space for analysis and use. In so doing, it contributes to the optimization of facility management and capital investment (e.g. the extension of the service life of facilities and the improvement of their operation ratio).