Case Study: Major Wind Power Generation Company protects bats and maximizes turbine uptime with Cogent DataHub

Major Wind Power Generation Company- Customer Case Study

Major Wind Power Generation Company, a large U.S. wind energy operator, needed to protect an endangered bat species during its migration season without shutting down its entire wind farm for two months. The challenge was to comply with wildlife regulations while minimizing lost generation from 100 turbines across a 35-turbine system and avoiding costly manual changes to turbine settings every day.

Cogent DataHub provided a scripting-based solution using the DataHub software on the SCADA interface to automate turbine curtailment. Instead of changing cut-in speeds manually, the script kept turbines off until wind speeds reached 7 m/s or temperature conditions allowed operation, then released them to start automatically, with a full audit trail of turbine activity and curtailed energy. The system went live on August 15th and successfully enabled the company to meet bat-protection requirements while maximizing clean-energy production.