Securing the transmission capacity and interconnectivity of new wind turbines to the grid is a crucial moment during the installation of any new wind farm. This critical phase often involves up to six months of field tests to ensure that all the elements are working properly before the wind farm achieves full certification.At the heart of this process is the power converter connecting each turbine to the transmission network. The firmware program within the converter controls and ensures the correct electrical behaviour and safe operation of the electrical grid.
Ingeteam’s firmware development and validation process uses simulation models to ensure their operation is reliable and deterministic. Specially adapted to meet each customer’s precise requirements, the firmware development procedure involves an iterative qualification process. Using Software-in-the-Loop (SiL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) validation procedures, any issues found during the validation stage are quickly fed back into the development stage to be corrected. The SiL models allow detailed debugging down to individual breakpoints on the source code, while the HiL simulations, using real-time execution, provide full software and hardware controller integration testing.
