DNV’s yaw optimization service employs the high-frequency data recorded by a wind turbine to identify yaw misalignments and non-optimal yawing behaviour.

By accessing high-frequency wind turbine data, we can conduct a number of different yaw optimization analyses. The results from these analyses have been compelling, in many cases showing misalignments that, when corrected, present energy gains of over 1%.

A key feature of this service is that it does not require the installation of additional hardware, which can be costly.

How we’re helping out customers

We’ve supported Taaleri, an investor and manager of 1.6 GW portfolio of renewables assets in Europe, the US and the Middle East. Taleeri had concerns about the performance of a subset of its  fleet and requested that DNV investigate a range potential issues, including yaw alignment. We identified that one turbine had a very different yawing behaviour than the other turbines in the wind farm. It appeared to be taking much longer to yaw each time the wind changed direction. As well as having a slow yawing response, the same turbine had three times as many yaw operations than the other turbines and was also reporting far more yaw-system-related alarms. All the data and investigations pointed to mechanical resistance in the yaw mechanism. This particular issue was costing the Taleeri EUR 7,000 per year in lost revenue.