GE Renewable Energy has announced it has secured five-year Digital Wind Farm services contracts for two aging wind farms in central Japan. Originally commissioned in 2004, the 22MW Chosi wind farm consists of 15 units of GE’s 1.5s product and is owned by Kandenko.

Using GE’s Prognostics and PowerUp Services software applications, the site will implement a turbine performance enhancement strategy that involves, among other adjustments, fine tuning the pitch angle according to the site’s real-world operating conditions. The resulting data will help the team analyse current and historical performance, plus it will help predict the remaining useful life of key components in the aging machines.

Kinden Corporation’s 30MW Shirama project near Osaka is made up of 20 units of GE’s 1.5sle wind turbines. First commissioned in 2009, the site will also receive GE’s Prognostics and PowerUp* Services applications, implementing software and hardware enhancements that utilise a new blade clearance operation mode which will help the turbines run more efficiently and increase overall plant production by up to five per cent.