53% of China's wind farms upgraded following safety inspections

CHINA: China has upgraded of its 53% wind farms following a nationwide inspection to ensure safety operation, according to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC).

Nordex turbine in Helanshan, China. 53% of China's wind farms have been revamped

SERC said that since August when it started a nationwide inspection of wind farms, it has examined 360 wind farms that are connected to the grid and 80 wind farms that are under construction. The inspection found around 1,700 hidden dangers.

Since last year, wind turbines have frequently broken down in Chinese wind farms and the malfunctions continue to rise.

SERC said that in the first eight months this year, there have been 193 accidents on wind turbines. They included 54 accidents that led to a 100-500MW being disconnected, and 12 accidents that each led to over 500MW of turbines being disconnected.

Shi Yubo, vice-chairman of SERC, said these accidents exposed fluctuations in Chinese wind farm operation, discordance in wind farm planning and construction, difficulty in wind power grid-access and consumption, and low overall competitiveness of wind turbine manufacturing sector.

SERC said that 34 key wind farms with an overall capacity of 4.34GW, have a low voltage ride through (LVRT) capacity. This was a priority for SERC.

Grid-access inspection, another priority, is making slow progress. This is because China has only one testing organisation with qualifications for the inspection.

China has a large number turbines that are due to be upgraded and newly installed wind turbines to be examined.