The company Ogin Energy needed a converter for its new generation of wind turbines. The existing standard converters seemed unable to meet Ogins physical design requirements and needed significant customizations/development in order to meet Ogins technical requirements.
In fact, Ogin asked PowerCon to design and build the new full scale converter, provided that the PowerCon engineering team was able to develop a tailor-made converter at a cost level that could compete with known standard converters – and still without compromising reliability and technical compliance.
In 2012 Ogin acquired a new generation of converters for its new series of wind turbines. The new converter was designed, developed and built by PowerCon in just 10 months.
In close collaboration with Ogin, PowerCon’s engineering teams designed, developed and built a full-scale Power system including cabinets, power-stage, filters, cooling system, converter controller and software. All 100% technically compliant and fully meting the reliability requirements.
PowerCon delivered a technical design and a solution that in addition to meeting all the technical and non-technical requirements also provides the ownership, control and flexibility that is so important in a market which constantly changes.
The fact that Ogin gained ownership to the design, made it possible to integrate the converter and the control systems into the same cabinet and place it in the nacelle – which has a major impact on the cost.
The control-platform was designed and developed by the same team that was eventually spun out to a new company under the name of PowerCon Embedded A/S.
PowerCons Engineering teams spent only 10 months and 12.000 working hours to design, develop and build a fully operational full scale converter to Ogin.
After just 10 months, the design was pre-tested, released and a converter prototype was installed in the Ogin Wind Turbine Generator that was successfully put into operation. PowerCon had delivered according to the agreed budget and time schedule.
By investing 2 million USD in a tailor-made full scale converter, Ogin gained full control over its supply chain and acquired a solution that will reduce costs by a double-digit million USD figure per year, compared to alternative solutions based on standard converters. This is according to the original business case and provided that the projected production levels are reached.
I have never before seen such a complex project completed in such a short time and with such success.
