SCADASat and Garth Wind Shetland Islands Scotland
The Challenge
Garth Wind Shetland Islands Scotland is a community windfarm project based in Yell – one of the picturesque northerly islands of Shetland. The wind turbines, managed by a board of trustees based in the local community, farm the wind to generate power, which in turn they sell back to the grid.
The islands are exposed to some of the UK’s harshest weather conditions, making power outages a likely and unavoidable risk. One such outage resulted in more than £17,000 in lost renewable energy for Garth Wind. At the time, there was no preventative maintenance schedule or service agreement in place, meaning reactive call-outs, engineer mobilisation, and travel to the remote site all incurred significant additional costs.
The SCADASat Solution
Recognizing that prevention is more effective than reactive repairs, Ground Control worked closely with the Garth Wind trustees to enhance their SCADASat service. The solution included a long-term servicing agreement with two planned preventative maintenance (PPM) inspections each year. During these visits, specialist engineers carry out comprehensive health checks, identify potential issues, and replace components showing signs of wear before they can cause failures during severe weather.
By committing to a longer-term service contract, the Garth Wind trustees also secured a 5% discount on Ground Control’s services, reducing ongoing maintenance costs while improving system resilience.
Ground Control’s SCADASat solution provides the critical communications link between the wind farm and the grid connection point, delivering real-time operational data that enables effective monitoring and control of power generation. This connectivity is essential for preventing power saturation at the point of connection, maximising energy output, and ensuring the most efficient use of the electricity generated.
As a community-owned renewable energy project, all profits generated by Garth Wind are reinvested into local initiatives across the Shetland Islands. In recent years, funding has supported projects including COVID-19 response efforts and improvements to the islands’ harbour infrastructure, delivering lasting benefits to the local community.
What’s Next?
There’s further scope of opportunity for not only Garth Winds, but similar community Scottish Highlands projects.
A probable model is that of a hire scheme. Ground Control can deliver all the necessary hardware and robust maintenance, while communities reap the financial rewards of hiring out the hub to anchor services.
Further, Ground Control’s global reach to even the world’s most remote data, presents an opportunity to permanently install infrastructure for this group of Islands to harness the power from much needed renewable energy sources.
Would you like to know more?
Ground Control works extensively with Utilities, Oil and Gas, and Renewables companies, supporting both their SCADA / telemetry requirements, and also connecting their workforce with both safety and communication applications.
Call us, or complete the form, if you’d like to discuss your project; we have many years of experience and will be very happy to share what we’ve learned with you.