Endika Aldaiturriaga, Product Engineer

Oceantec
Bilbao Marine Energy Week
Ocean Energy Conference, 27 March 2017
How can industry benefit from ITNs?

Overview

I. Introduction to Oceantec Project

II. Oceantec partnership in OceaNET
III. Opportunities for MRE SMEs participating in ITN programs
IV. Suggestions
V. Conclusions

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

I. Oceantec in facts and figures

- Owned by Iberdrola and Tecnalia, founded in 2009

- Focused in Offshore OWC based wave energy converter development (2013)
- Grid-connected 30 kW prototype (MARMOK-A5) deployed in BIMEP since
October 2016
- Looking ahead to exploit & operate the WEC for at least 2 years more, including
mooring and turbine changeover as part of OPERA1 Project.
- Currently working in the design of full scale device

1 Grant Agreement No 654444

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

Load-Out of the WEC

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

Towing to bimep

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

In-site installation of the WEC

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

WEC up and running!

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

 How can industry benefit from ITNs?

Upcoming milestones in 2017 – OPERA1 project

Image: Courtesy of University of Exeter Turbine Drawing: Courtesy of Kymaner

1 Grant Agreement No 654444

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

II. Oceantec partnership in OceaNET

- François-Xavier Faÿ collaborated during 6 months with Oceantec

- Consortium formed by Tecnalia, UPV-EHU and Oceantec as associate partner
- Actually working towards obtaining his PhD: “Modelling and control of
oscillating water column systems including energy storage solution”

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

II. Oceantec partnership in OceaNET

- Undertaken activities (I): Numerical modelling, FD-TD model comparison and

validation , parallelizable models , excitation force prediction using auto-
regressive models, observer models… 3
Wave elevation ref
Wave elevation est

Wave elevation (m)

0

-1

-2

-3
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (s)

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

II. Oceantec partnership in OceaNET

- Undertaken activities (II): Control law development, feedback control, model-

based power optimization, online sea-state estimation…and others
Torque laws
120

TL1
TL2
100

80

Generator torque - Nm
60

40

20

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Rotational speed - rad/s

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

II. Oceantec partnership in OceaNET

- Undertaken activities (III): Validation of Control law testing in Mutriku Wave

Power Plant

- Experimental validation of models

and control

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

III. Opportunities for MRE SMEs participating in ITN programs

✓ Because learning takes place in Research Institutions and Universities (right place,
right pace):

- Researchers gain in-depth view of technical challenges affecting MRE

- Researchers in direct contact with experts with extensive research background

- Acquire key personal abilities before starting secondment:

- Learn to be data driven and strive to always back points with solid analysis

- Become comfortable in presenting solutions internally and externally

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

III. Opportunities for MRE SMEs participating in ITN programs

✓ Industry gains access to highly skilled researchers

- Researchers are a valuable contribution to project team from day 1

- They have a broad vision of the challenges of the sector, and solutions given in
the sector to some common problems

- Also obtaining an opportunity to dedicate research time to non-critical highly

innovative ideas or concepts.

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

III. Opportunities for MRE SMEs participating in ITN programs

✓ As part of a network, researchers in ITNs contribute greatly to project team

- Short courses within the network help sharing knowledge and experiences in cross-
cutting technologies affecting MRE sector

- Contribute to networking of MRE SMEs with transnational research institutions and other
industry partners.

- Helps in the diffusion of applied research happening in MRE SMEs!

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

III. Opportunities for MRE SMEs participating in ITN programs

✓ Researchers have direct contact with real applications

- Focused research into specific

aspects of a technologies

- Everyday life in MRE SMEs is rushing

to reach project milestones and solve
practical problems

- Simple solutions to complex problems favored against high profile solutions (KISS!)

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

III. Opportunities for MRE SMEs participating in ITN programs

✓ Researchers have direct contact with real applications

- For good or bad, every single aspect of the technology done or

overseen in-house (We are SMEs after all!)

- Modelling, analyzing, optimizing

- Design and validation
- Installation, operation, maintenance
- And the list goes on!

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

IV. Suggestions
Based on our experience, extending secondment periods in the industrial partners could
be beneficial

- Something around 50% of the time of secondment done in industrial partner would
allow to put more stress in the applied research

(Probably solved through the figure of European Industrial Doctorates (EID) in H2020)

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

How can industry benefit from ITNs?

V. Conclusions

Participating in ITNs is a win-win for both industry and researchers

- Industry gains access to highly skilled researchers with broad vision of

challenges in the sector.

- Researchers contribute to the projects not only directly, but also through their
networking and diffusion activities.

- Researchers experience daily life in MRE SMEs and gain direct contact with real
applications.

OceaNET Final Conference – Bilbao Marine Energy Week 2017

Thank you for your attention!

Endika Aldaiturriaga, Product Engineer

ealdaiturriaga@oceantecenergy.com
Oceantec
Bilbao Marine Energy Week
Ocean Energy Conference, 27 March 2017