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Medium Wind Turbine

Certification Guideline
Version 1
30 March 2016

Disclaimer
The standard provides a means of ensuring medium wind turbines meet
good practice, but RenewableUK does not give or imply any warranty
for the actual performance or reliability of any turbine on a particular site.
This standard does not give a guarantee against individual equipment
failure, nor does it cover the satisfactory installation of the turbine.

RenewableUK
Medium Wind Turbine
Certification Guideline
Version 1

Dated 30 March 2016

Foreword
RenewableUK has coordinated the Association's activities for sub 50kW wind turbine sites through the
Small Wind System Technical Group and coordinated all onshore large wind activities through the
Onshore Strategy Group.
The Association recognised the evolving dynamic of the UK market meant there were a number of
issues not covered by the scope of the existing industry groups.
In response to membership interest, and to explore the requirements and characteristics of a new
market, RenewableUK convened a working group. The purpose of the Medium Wind Working Group
was to review requirements and propose a way forward for the UK medium wind sector. Options to
be considered included:

Wind turbine design and testing requirements

Routes to conformity assessment
Wind turbine installer requirements

This document sets out guidance as to the minimum design and testing criteria expected to be
followed by medium wind turbine manufacturers and requirements for conformity.
This Guidance Document has been prepared by the RenewableUK Medium Wind Standards Group.

Page 2 of 8

Contents
Foreword................................................................................................................................................. 2
1

IEC Standards for wind turbines ..................................................................................................... 4

Scope ............................................................................................................................................... 4

Design.............................................................................................................................................. 5
3.1
Section 6 External conditions.................................................................................................. 5
3.1.1
Section 6.1 Wind Classes................................................................................................. 5
3.1.2
Section 6.2 Wind turbine classes .................................................................................... 5
3.1.3
Section 6.3.1.1 Wind speed distribution......................................................................... 6
3.1.4
Section 6.3.1.2 The normal wind profile model (NWP) .................................................. 6
3.1.5
Section 6.3.1.3 Normal turbulence model (NTM)........................................................... 6
3.1.6
Section 6.3.2.1 Extreme wind speed model (EWM) ....................................................... 6
3.2
Section 7 Structural design ..................................................................................................... 6
3.2.1
Ultimate strength analysis Method 1........................................................................... 6
3.2.2
Ultimate strength analysis Method 2........................................................................... 6
3.2.3
Ultimate strength analysis Method 3........................................................................... 7
3.3
Section 8 Control and protection system ............................................................................... 7
3.4
Section 9 Mechanical systems ................................................................................................ 7
3.5
Section 10 Electrical systems .................................................................................................. 7
3.5.1
Section 10.6 Lightning protection ................................................................................... 7

Testing ............................................................................................................................................. 8
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5

Acoustic noise measurement .................................................................................................. 8

Power performance measurement......................................................................................... 8
Mechanical loads measurement ............................................................................................. 8
Structural testing of rotor blades............................................................................................ 8
Safety and function testing ..................................................................................................... 8

Page 3 of 8

IEC Standards for wind turbines

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is an organization for standardisation comprising

all eligible national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The objective of IEC is to
promote international co-operation on all questions concerning standardisation in the electrical and
electronic fields. To this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards,
Technical Specifications, Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides.
The IEC 61400 series of standards is applicable to wind turbine generator systems, providing design
requirements and a framework to evaluate performance.
Essential design requirements to ensure the engineering integrity of wind turbines are addressed in
IEC 61400-1. Its purpose is to provide an appropriate level of protection against damage from all
hazards during their planned operating lifetime.
In recent editions (notably IEC 61400-1:2005/A1:2010), the standard has been revised to
accommodate the changing technologies.
As the standard has developed wind turbines at the lower size end of the scale have been required to
conform to high levels of technical compliance more applicable to utility-scale machines. These
requirements may not be appropriate to medium wind turbine design, installation and operation.
Many of the older wind turbine models were not designed in accordance with these technical
requirements or assessed against them in the earlier editions of the standard. Consequently, a gap
has emerged in the medium wind sector where the latest current benchmarks set by the most recent
editions of the Standard are both technically challenging and perhaps less appropriate for many
medium wind turbine manufacturers.
The intention of this document is to use and modify the requirements of the current series of IEC
61400 standards in a form more appropriate for medium wind turbines.
2

Scope

This document is applicable to medium wind turbines. A medium wind turbine is defined as a wind
turbine with a rotor swept area or, in the case of a ducted or shrouded turbine, the larger of the duct
or shroud entry and exit areas greater than 200 m2 and less than or equal to 1000 m2. This definition
has been agreed by the RenewableUK Medium Wind Standard Group and the IEC Maintenance Team
(MT01) responsible for IEC 61400-1.
By way of example, this approximately equates to wind turbines in the range 50 kW to 400 kW
electrical power.

Page 4 of 8

Design

Medium wind turbines shall meet the design requirements of Sections 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of IEC 614001:2005/A1:2010 with the following clarifications and amendments. The appropriate amendments are
discussed below.
3.1

Section 6 External conditions

3.1.1

Section 6.1 Wind Classes

Medium wind turbines may be installed in more complex terrain and/or near industrial areas.
Therefore, it may be more appropriate to use a turbulence intensity class A+ or A for wind turbines in
these environments.
3.1.2

Section 6.2 Wind turbine classes

In order to allow the use of wind turbine classes for areas, which may experience very high extreme
winds in an otherwise moderate wind climate, a T class reference wind speed is included. Such
conditions may be found in tropical areas with hurricanes, cyclones or typhoons. This reference wind
speed may be used with the average wind speed in class I-III and turbulence intensities A-C
Table 1 modified as follows:
Table 1 Basic parameters for wind turbine classes
Wind turbine class

II

III

S
To be specified
by
manufacturer

Vref

(m/s)

50

42,5

37,5

Vave
Vref,T
A+
A
B
C

(m/s)
(m/s)
Iref (-)
Iref (-)
Iref (-)
Iref (-)

10

8,5

7,5
57
0,18
0,16
0,14
0,12

In Table 1, the parameter values apply at hub height and

Vave
is the annual average wind speed,
Vref
is the reference wind speed average over 10 min,
Vref,T
is the extreme reference wind speed average over 10 min applicable for tropical conditions,
A+
designates the category for highest turbulence characteristics,
A
designates the category for higher turbulence characteristics,
B
designates the category for medium turbulence characteristics,
C
designates the category for lower turbulence characteristics and
Iref
is the expected value of the turbulence intensity at 15 m/s.

Page 5 of 8

3.1.3

Section 6.3.1.1 Wind speed distribution

The standard wind turbine class, Vave shall be chosen from Table 1.
3.1.4

Section 6.3.1.2 The normal wind profile model (NWP)

The normal wind profile model as defined in Section 6.3.1.2 shall apply to medium wind turbine
systems. However, on some medium wind sites higher shear exponents can arise in combination with
high turbulence levels. Under these circumstances, for a medium wind turbine, it may be more
appropriate to use a shear exponent, , greater than 0,2. A shear exponent of = 0,3 provides a more
conservative value of the wind profile for such sites.
A generic class wind turbine may also be designated with an "M" sub-class. The load calculation for an
M sub class wind turbine shall be for a wind shear exponent of 0.3. Any Design Load Case, where a
shear exponent of 0.2 will result in more extreme or more damaging values in any load component,
shall be repeated with this value.
3.1.5

Section 6.3.1.3 Normal turbulence model (NTM)

Alternatively, a Weibull distribution can be assumed for 1 with Weibull scale and shape parameters:
= (0.75 + 3.3/)
= 0.27/ + 1.4
3.1.6

Section 6.3.2.1 Extreme wind speed model (EWM)

If the wind turbine type is designed for a T class reference wind speed, Vref shall be replaced by Vref,T
in the extreme wind speed model.
3.2

Section 7 Structural design

Wind turbine structural design shall be undertaken in accordance with the requirements of Section 7.
Ultimate strength analysis shall be undertaken by one of the following methods.
3.2.1

Ultimate strength analysis Method 1

The ultimate strength analysis shall be undertaken in accordance with Section 7.6.2 of IEC 614001:2005/A1:2010.
3.2.2

Ultimate strength analysis Method 2

The ultimate strength analysis shall be undertaken in accordance with Section 7.6.2 of IEC 614001:2005/A1:2010 with the following amendment:
For DLC 1.1 a characteristic value of load shall be determined by a statistical analysis of the extreme
loading that occurs for normal design situations and shall correspond to one of the following
alternatives:
a) The largest (or smallest) among the mean values of the 10-min extremes determined for each
wind speed in the given range, multiplied by 1,35. This method can only be applied for the
calculation of the blade root in-plane moment, out-of-plane moment and tip deflection.

Page 6 of 8

b) The largest (or smallest) among the 99th percentile (or 1st percentile in the case of minima)
values of the 10-min extremes determined for each wind speed in the given range, multiplied
by 1,2.
c) The value corresponding to an annual exceedance probability of 0.02 (i.e. a 50-year return
period) considering the wind speed distribution given in 6.3.1.1 and the given wind speed
range. Guidance is given in Annex F of IEC 61400-1:2005/A1:2010.
The design loads will be obtained by multiplying the characteristic loads according to any of these
alternatives by the partial safety factor for DLC 1.1 defined in Table 3 of IEC 61400-1:2005/A1:2010.
3.2.3

Ultimate strength analysis Method 3

The ultimate strength analysis shall be undertaken in accordance with the latest edition of IEC 614001.
3.3

Section 8 Control and protection system

Wind turbine operation and safety shall be governed by a control and protection system that meets
the requirements of Section 8.
3.4

Section 9 Mechanical systems

All mechanical systems that use or transmit relative motion through the combination of shafts, links,
bearings, slides, gears and other devices shall meet the requirements of Section 9 of the Standard.
3.5

Section 10 Electrical systems

The electrical system shall meet the requirements of Section 10 of the Standard with the following
clarification.
3.5.1

Section 10.6 Lightning protection

Lightning protection system in medium wind turbines shall comply with IEC 61400-24 Wind turbines
Part 24: Lightning Protection with the following exception.
Section 8.2.3: The ability of the air-termination system and down-conductor system to intercept
lightning flashes and conduct lightning currents shall be verified by the methods described in Section
8.2.3 of IEC 61400-24, except where the following design criteria are met:

Discrete air-termination system is used in the design. Moreover, the following minimum
requirements for placement of a sufficient amount of receptors shall be ensured:
- For a blade length less than 20m: 1 tip end receptor
- For a blade length greater than 20m (e.g. for a vertical axis wind turbine): 1 tip end
receptor and additionally 1 receptor on the low-pressure side of the blade (at a
distance from the tip end)
No carbon fibre is used in the blade construction
The air-termination system and down-conductor cannot be placed on or integrated in the
blade surface, nor can the blade surface be used as an air-termination or down-conductor
system.

Page 7 of 8

Testing

4.1

Acoustic noise measurement

Acoustic noise measurement shall be undertaken in accordance with IEC 61400-11:2012 Wind
turbines Part 11: Acoustic noise measurement techniques.
4.2

Power performance measurement

Power performance measurements shall be undertaken in accordance with IEC 61400-12-1:2005

Wind turbines Part 12-1: Power performance measurements of electricity producing wind turbines.
4.3

Mechanical loads measurement

The design calculations shall be validated by loads measurements. Guidance for load measurements
can be found in IEC TS 61400-13:2001 Wind turbine generator systems Part 13: Measurement of
mechanical loads.
4.4

Structural testing of rotor blades

As part of a design verification of the integrity of the blade, manufacturers shall perform static
structural testing of the blade. Under such circumstances, it is recommended that tests are
undertaken following the guidance provided in DD IEC TS 61400-23 Wind turbine generator systems
Part 23: Full-scale structural testing of rotor blades.
The applied load for the static blade test shall be the worst combination of the flap-wise and edgewise bending moment. The blade shall be tested including the blade hub connection. No damage may
occur at a test load up to the maximum operating load as predicted by, simulation modelling or
measurements, including load safety factors.
It is recommended that the blade be tested to failure to determine the strength margin between the
design load and actual blade failure load.
4.5

Safety and function testing

Safety and function testing shall be undertaken in accordance with Annex D of IEC 61400-22.

Page 8 of 8

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