Cold
weather blamed for failure of windmills to work properly
By Tad Vezner
tvezner@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 01/23/2010
09:56:40 PM CST
More windmill
generator problems, failure in cold temperatures as grease and oil thicken, and
ice builds up. Who’da thunk?
Last year, about a dozen
Eleven cities, including North
St. Paul and
The turbines were to be fully
operational by Nov. 7. To date, the number is zero.
One reason offered this week
at a North St. Paul City Council meeting: hydraulic fluid and lubricating oil
in the turbines' gear boxes. In cold weather, the fluid turns gel-like and
doesn't flow, said Derick Dahlen, president of Avant Energy, which manages the
MMPA. That can be particularly problematic if the turbines are already at a
standstill.
To fix the problem, a
contractor installed heating elements this week in the turbines. In addition,
heat tracing is likely to be added to the hydraulic lines and lubrication oil
system.
But that might not be enough,
said Dahlen, who blames his engineering and construction contractor for the
delay.
"I think they should
absolutely have known about the cold weather issue, but I think the problems go
deeper with that. It's a contributing factor, it's not a causal factor,"
Dahlen said. "The root problem is that the contractor is not solving any
problems. ... The weather warms up, and they still don't run."
The units are not set up
correctly," he added. "(The contractor denies) that there's a
problem."
Lisa Lutz, in-house council
for Henkles & McCoy Inc., replied: "We were just made aware of the
situation in headquarters (in
In the meantime, residents
driving past the turbines wonder why they aren't running.
"Who's the idiot that didn't realize that a
Schmahl refers to the fact
that the windmills were bought from Escondido, Calif.-based, enXco, a
subsidiary of the French company EDF Energies Nouvelles, and have never
operated under such cold conditions.
North St. Paul City Manager
Wally Wysopal said yes, the city's windmill has turned and even put some power
on the grid.
But Dahlen admits: "This is the farthest north they (the
windmills) have been. So we expect to have some amount of issue with cold
weather operation ...
and we expect to solve it, too. The problems are all solvable problems."
Dahlen said the turbines had
been refurbished, because the MMPA could not afford new units, but have a
history of running well.
Wysopal said he's disappointed
by the delay.
"We're feeling that we
just expected it to be going as soon as it went up, but apparently that's not
feasible sometimes," he said. "We see it as a contractor issue; an
issue between the contractor and (MMPA). ... For now, we're going to accept
that."
The windmills each cost about $417,000 and have been erected in Anoka,
Arlington, Brownton, Buffalo, Chaska, East Grand Forks, Le Sueur, North St.
Paul, Olivia, Shakopee and Winthrop, as well as at the MMPA's energy park in
Faribault. To fund the project, MMPA sold $5 million in zero-interest bonds.
Under the program, the cities
buy energy from MMPA, their primary energy provider.
The turbines were installed to
meet a state law requiring energy producers to provide 25 percent of output
from renewable sources by 2025. The delay in getting the windmills online has
not affected the supply, because other energy sources were already in place.
The 160-kilowatt turbines are much
smaller than some modern turbines elsewhere in the state. For example, the
turbines at Xcel Energy's Grand Meadow Wind Farm, near