Istos Renewables in parallel with the wind measurements can perform measurements of ice accretion. Icing is a phenomenon that is often encountered during the winter months in mountainous areas of Greece and elsewhere.
The recording and determination of the critical characteristics of the phenomenon are done based on the international standard ISO 12494 “Atmospheric Icing of Structures”. The physical quantities that can be logged, depending on the customer’s requirements, are:
– Weight of ice buildup on standard cylinder Φ30mm.
– Thickness of ice.
– Ice density.
– Type of ice (rime or glaze).
– Icing category (ICG1, ICG2, ICG3, ICR1, ICR2 etc).
Rime ice reference picture
Glaze ice reference picture
Respectively, based on the guidelines and reports from ELFORSK (Scandinavian Network of Wind Energy Industries) as well as from the IEA Wind (International Energy Agency), quantities can be determined that concern and supplement the wind measurements, giving useful information about the influence of icing to the energy production of the future wind farm, but also important information for estimating wind and ice loads. Load estimation serves to select and develop the most appropriate lattice mast model that can survive the extreme conditions of the site.
For example, the following can be estimated:
– the beginning and end of periods of:
– Meteorological icing and
– Instrumental icing
– Extreme icing for three and fifty years (see next table) based on which the combined wind and ice loads are calculated:
In application of all the above, Istos Renewables can combine the following equipment in whole and in part (depending on the customer’s requirements):
– Ice detection & measuring devices (Icemonitor, Icetroll, Labkotec LID, Goodrich)
– Special cameras resistant to low temperature conditions (Mobotix, IceEye)
– Combination of heated instruments (eg heated ultrasonic anemometers and unheated cup anemometers) or other combination (eg RM-Young alpine with unheated cup anemometers).
Finally, our experienced staff, using specialized software, detects based on the above measurements if there is data to be filtered and identifies the periods of meteorological icing and instrument icing.
For more see section -> Important Projects -> Armenian Wind One
