Bureau Veritas Electrical and Electronic Product Services has many years of experience in assisting with wind energy projects and can uniquely provide grid protection testing for much of the world from a single location covering VDE 0126-1-1 (German standard but also the basis for many other countries including France), UL 1741 (USA), DK 5940 (Italy), RD 1663 (Spain), G83/1 (UK), AS 47777.x (Australia), and many more besides.
Our experience in inverters is proven by the fact that we work with many of the top 10 inverter manufacturers worldwide and issue hundreds of certificates every year.
Bespoke training: Available covering all aspects of compliance for wind energy suppliers (whole system, inverter, back-up system, controller, etc…)
Consultancy
International Approvals: From market research advising of target market requirements to full homologation services ensuring fast and effective compliance for all your wind energy products
Testing and Analysis
Regulatory EMC & Safety Testing: against International (Draft IEC 62109, IEC 62103), European (EN 60950, EN 50178) and North American (UL 1741, CSA 22.2-107) requirements. Other country requirements also available on request.
Testing and Analysis
Grid Protection Testing: We are uniquely accredited and appointed to provide inverter testing against all key national grid requirements. Standards we are recognized to test against and accredited for include VDE 0126-1-1 (German standard but also the basis for many other countries including France), UL 1741 (USA), DK 5940 (Italy), RD 1663 (Spain), G83/1 (UK), AS 47777.x (Australia), and many more besides. Testing against these requirements is all available from a single test and certification center saving sometimes months in time and many tens of thousands in money.
Testing and Analysis
Environmental/Performance Testing: We can provide full testing for wind energy products against climatic and mechanical criteria, heloping advise on problems at prototype stage before your product is released to the market.
Certification
GS certification: Certification against GS requirements for inverters
Certification
NRTL certification: Certification against US requirements for inverters
Inspection, Audit & Assessment
Pre-Shipment Inspection:Available for all components within a wind Energy system.
Client Benefits >> Inverters
Multi-country grid protection test reports / certificates available from a single location
EMC & Safety Testing available worldwide
Very cost effective solution with industry best turnaround
We have a successful track record of having successfully issued 100’s of Grid Protection certificates all over the world
Challenges faced by the Wind Energy Industry / Bureau Veritas Solutions
Wind Inverter Manufacturers and Buyers face many problems, some of which are outlined below. Bureau Veritas Electrical and Electronic Product Services can assist you not only in overcoming these barriers, but also in benefiting from them.
Your Challenge
Our Solution
Location: If located in the open, inverters need certain levels of rain protection, if installed in a roof space they may need to cope with high temperatures. Inverters also have limits for noise levels they can emit, either audible noise or electromagnetic noise.
Environmental Testing: Our environmental test laboratories around the world can provide in depth analysis about the environmental performance of your product and can simulate your product's typical life prior to production thereby ensuring costly recalls and returns are avoided.
National/State Variances: The inverter needs to operate without problems for normal fluctuations of voltage and frequency on the utility grid. Different countries operate their utility grids at different voltages and frequencies. Even when they nominally run at the same voltage and frequency they may have different ranges for normal operation and different set points for inverter protection and isolation to cut in at.
Knowledge: Our engineers have the most up-to-date knowledge of the national testing requirements, meaning we can provide you with a requirements document covering all your target countries at design stage thereby enabling you the ability to design compliance into your product.
Grid Interconnection: Grid connection is mostly addressed by national documents and there is still a long way to go to achieve harmonized interconnection requirements and rules
Accreditation: Accredited and recognized by all the major markets of the world, Bureau Veritas Electrical and Electronic Product Services can quickly provide a single test program covering all your target countires from a single location.
In-Country Climatic Differences: Selling to the Spanish market, you must focus on maintaining high efficiencies at higher operating temperatures. whereas temperature is less of an issue for those targeting Germany
Environmental Testing: Our environmental test laboratories around the world can provide in depth analysis about the environmental performance of your product and can simulate your product's typical life prior to production thereby ensuring costly recalls and returns are avoided.
Reliability: Inverters contain many parts and can fail in many ways.
Assistance: We have been testing inverters for many years and are a leading provider of debugging advice to not only ensure compliance, but also longevity. Our failure analysis and life testing can also simulate the inverters life to identify possible flaws before they arrive.
Approval Costs: It is difficult to introduce new products, particularly to the US market, because of the overheads involved for getting products approved, such as the NRTL listing for the US, and restraints due to regulations
International Approvals: Working with Bureau Veritas Electrical and Electronic Product Services means you benefit from the most up-to-date advice and cost effective solution in order to facilitate fast compliance. We have relationships with all the major certification bodies and having s one-stop shop for testing, we can provide fast and cost effective compliance.
Wind Energy Facts
Turbines, with rated output of 1.5-3 MW, have become the most common for commercial use
Areas where winds are stronger and more constant, such as offshore and high altitude sites, are preferred locations for wind farms.
Wind power is the fastest growing of the renewable energy technologies, currently providing less than 0.5% of global energy.
Over the past decade, global installed maximum capacity increased from 2,500 MW in 1992 to around 75,000 MW at the end of 2006
Due to the intermittency of wind resources, most deployed turbines in the EU produce electricity an average of 25% of the hours in a year (a capacity factor of 25%), but under favorable wind regimes some reach 35% or higher.
Capacity factors are a function of seasonal wind fluctuations and may be higher in winter. It would mean that a typical 5 MW turbine in the EU would have an average output of 1.7 MW.
Globally, the long-term technical potential of wind energy is believed to be five times total current global energy production, or 40 times current electricity demand. This could require large amounts of land to be utilized for wind turbines, particularly in areas of higher wind resources. Offshore resources experience mean wind speeds of ~90% greater than that of land, so offshore resources could contribute substantially more energy.
Consumer Electronics 
Bureau Veritas Electrical and Electronic Product Services has many years of experience in assisting with wind energy projects and can uniquely provide grid protection testing for much of the world from a single location covering VDE 0126-1-1 (German standard but also the basis for many other countries including France), UL 1741 (USA), DK 5940 (Italy), RD 1663 (Spain), G83/1 (UK), AS 47777.x (Australia), and many more besides.
Non Electrical CPS