The Nome Nugget

NJUS to remove small turbines from Banner Peak

- By Maisie Thomas

Nome Joint Utility System is planning to remove all 15 of its 50kilowatt Entegrity turbines from Banner Peak Wind Farm this year. The smaller turbines will be taken down because they are “obsolete,” said NJUS Assistant Manager Ken Morton. The majority of energy produced by the wind farm comes from NJUS’s two 900-kW EWT turbines.

The cost-benefit analysis of maintenanc­e versus energy production tipped in favor of shutting the smaller turbines down, Morton explained. “The cost to maintain the smaller units has increased to the point that the cost of the diesel fuel they displace no longer pencils out,” he said.

Morton explained that the smaller turbines are older and not as robust as the 900 kW units. Due to their age, the control components for the turbines are no longer available and the brake tips require “significan­t” servicing. Moreover, NJUS has been unable to find replacemen­t turbines for the smaller units; 50 kW is “just too small for the market.” The removal is budgeted to cost $20,000.

According to Morton, NJUS does not currently have plans to replace the turbines or to add new ones. However, if grant funding becomes available for additional turbines, as well as funds for a battery system that would allow for greater reliance on wind energy, NJUS would pursue that.

As per the NJUS Production Report for December 2020, Banner Peak Wind Farm produced 431,035 kilowatt hours, which accounted for about 14 percent of energy production during the month. All of this was produced by the two EWT turbines.

Morton said that on a windy day —of which Nome has many — the farm can generate up to 35 percent of Nome’s power. The yearly average is a much lower nine percent. In 2019, wind energy displaced 155,000 gallons of fuel. Due to the amount of wind the Bering Strait region receives, the area is prime for wind power.

Despite how much wind the region receives, here are a number of challenges to operating and maintainin­g wind turbines in rural northweste­rn Alaska. In its roughly 12 years of operation, Banner Peak Wind Farm has suffered several blows. Originally, 18 50 kW turbines were installed, but over the years three have been removed. A particular­ly dramatic example was in 2014, when a turbine fell down and was completely destroyed. Shortly after the turbines were first installed, the blade pitch needed to be adjusted to compensate for increased density of the colder winter air. For a number of reasons, including extreme weather conditions, it took roughly four months to complete the adjustment. Then, a serial defect in the turbine’s drive trains was discovered. As a result, all the turbines had to be shut down again for another four months, until August of 2009. Banner Peak Wind Farm started producing power in September 2009, nearly a year after the turbines were installed.

Nome’s Banner Peak Wind Farm, named for its location on Banner Peak, became operationa­l in 2008. BSNC and SNC installed the original 18 50 kW turbines. NJUS took over the farm from Bering Straits Native Corporatio­n and Sitnasuak Native Corporatio­n a few years later and installed the larger turbines in 2013.

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