2018.08.18
Wind turbines in Japan suffered by typhoons and earthquakea (and winter lightning)
Two strong typhoons and one huge earthquake attacked Japan in Aug. and Sep. 2018.
Typhoon Cimarron (Category 3 by SSHS) fell down one MHI 600kW Wtg at Awaji city in Hyogo pref. on 24 Aug.
Official accident report for METI’s committee (in Japanese)
http://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/sankoshin/hoan_shohi/denryoku_anzen/newenergy_hatsuden_wg/pdf/013_01_02.pdf
Typhoon Jebi (Category 5 by SSHS) broke Enercon 1990kW tower at Hino-misaki and GE 1.5MW blade at Shirama wind farm, in Hirokawa-cho, Wakayama pref. on 4 Sep.
Local residents uploaded photos at their Instagram and twitter.
http://www.twgram.me/media/1865338134879874521_5537667977
https://twitter.com/no_25men/status/1037517338474504192/photo/1
There were 115 wind turbines of 182.39MW at 21 sites in the very strong wind area (6 prefectures, Tokushima, Kagawa, Hyogo, Wakayama, Osaka , Kyoto).
Most of them survived two typhoons.
Japanese power safety authority in METI ordered all large wind turbine owners to check their turbines safety on 27 Aug.＆ on 18 Sep., according to the Awaji accident.
The JWPA corporates with METI.
METI’s announcement on 27 Aug.2018 (No. 1-3)
http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/safety_security/industrial_safety/oshirase/2018/08/300827.html
(in Japanese)
http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/safety_security/industrial_safety/oshirase/2018/08/300827.pdf (in Japanese)
METI’s additional announcement on 18 Sep.2018 (No.4)
http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/safety_security/industrial_safety/oshirase/2018/09/300918.html
(in Japanese)
http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/safety_security/industrial_safety/oshirase/2018/09/300918.pdf (in Japanese)
1.To confirm the conformity to the technical regulations once again. If you find nonconformity, to fixing properly and report them.
2.To secure keeping yaw control and to keep out common people access during typhoon, if necessary.
3.To check foundation healthiness (especially joint portion) with design drawings at daily inspections and regular inspections.
To check carefuly for the turbines older than 10 years.
4.To check (and report it to METI) your wind tutbine's foundation type
Note: Wind turbine safety regulation had amended stricter since June 2007, according to the Mityakojima accident by Typhoon Maemi in 2003. 600kW at Awaji was installed in Mar.2002, 1990kW at Hino-misaki in Oct. 2010, 1.5MW at Hirokawa in Dec.2008.
We hope wind turbines in Philippines and China won't be harmed by the typhoon Mangkhut.
Huge earthquake damaged 3 coal fired power plants (Tomatou-azuma power plant, 165MW in total) at about 3am on 6 Sep..
They produced about half of Hokkaido’s power demand at that time.
Sudden loss of huge power supply caused frequency decrease, then remaining power plants (including wind farms) stopped one after another.
Hokkaido island has gone “black out”. 303 wind turbines of 358MW at 61 sites were forced to shut down.
It needed about 40 hours to re-start whole island-wide grid system.
100MW of wind turbines & battery systems restarted 52 hours later from shut down.
The rest of wind turbines restarted 126 - 130 hours later.
Some delay was needed to secure the grid stability.
その時、再エネ設備は？ 極端気象に襲われた太陽光・風力 （in Japanese）
https://tech.nikkeibp.co.jp/dm/atcl/feature/15/302961/100200095/?SS=imgview&FD=118785717
http://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/santeii/pdf/038_01_00.pdf (page11)
Addition 1:
Typhoon Charmy (Category 5 by SSHS) attacked Okinawa on 29 Sep., and attacked Wakayama pあｒref. through Tohoku on 30 Sep. 2018. Fortunately, no wind turbine damages are reported by 2 Oct..
Additon 2 on 9 Nov. 2018:
Japanese power safety authority also ordered all large wind turbine owners to check their turbines safety against "Winter lightning strikes" on 9 Nov., We have very strong lightnings at near Japan Sea distericts during winter season. Their lightning energy sometimes reaches more than 600 coulombs which exceeds usual IEC61400-24 standard and they destroyed many wind turbine blades in past years.
事業用風力発電設備に対する冬季雷前の点検強化の周知依頼について(in Japanese) by MWEI on 9 Nov. 2018
http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/safety_security/industrial_safety/oshirase/2018/11/301109.html
http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/safety_security/industrial_safety/oshirase/2018/11/301109-1.pdf
