The power of 10MW: "trade-in" old wind farms, quadrupling power generation

In April, spring returned to the earth, everything recovered, and the Mudanjiang River, which had been silent for a winter, gradually woke up, playing the grand overture of spring. At the same time, the Huadian Muling Shiwen wind power project, which is 100 miles away, has also ushered in a "new life" after the transformation and upgrading of "replacing the small with the large" - the annual power generation has quadrupled under the premise that the total installed capacity remains unchanged.

Twenty years ago, at the stage of transition from commercial exploration to large-scale construction of China's wind power industry, Huadian Group built the province's first megawatt wind power project - Muling Shiwen Wind Farm, based on the abundant wind resources of Heilongjiang. This is the predecessor of Huadian Mu Ling Ten Characters Equal Volume Transformation and Upgrading Project.

The first phase of the original Muling Shiwen Wind Farm used 25 foreign brand units with a single capacity of only 1.3 megawatts, and the units had been in service for more than 17 years before the transformation, and the equipment stability and power generation efficiency were already much worse than before, and they had entered the elimination period. In December 2024, the first phase of the wind farm upgrade was completed, and the three 9 MW wind turbines customized by Sany Renewable Energy for Huadian successfully "took over", realizing the localization of substitution, increasing the impeller diameter from 60 meters to 230 meters, and upgrading the wind capture capacity and power generation level by leaps and bounds.

At present, the upgrading and transformation of the second phase of the project is also in full swing, and it is expected to be officially put into operation in late May. At that time, five 10 MW onshore "Big Mac" units independently developed by Sany Renewable Energy will replace 30 1.5 MW small wind turbines, writing a new legend with stronger performance. In this way, the number of wind turbines is reduced by 85% (55→8) while the total capacity remains the same, saving a lot of land resources and achieving both economic and ecological benefits.

Jin Xianyu, technical director of Heilongjiang Huafu Wind Power Muling Co., Ltd., said in an interview with Heilongjiang Daily: "(Muling Ten Text Project) all the equipment of the booster station after the upgrade has been digitally managed, in addition, the height of the hub of the single wind turbine completed by the transformation has reached 140 meters, and the annual power generation has reached 240 million kilowatt hours, which has increased nearly 3 times compared with the power generation before the transformation, and the original hub height is between 60 meters and 70 meters, so the span is relatively large, and the effect is also very obvious." ”

The past and present life of the Mu Ling Ten Characters Project is the epitome of the glorious changes in China's wind power in the past 20 years. From relying on imports to having a complete industrial chain, from being controlled by key technologies to leading the global large-scale wind power, behind the "rebirth" of the Mu Ling Shiwen project is the accumulation of China's wind power.

As the first old wind farm technical transformation project in Heilongjiang Province, the successful practice of Huadian Muling Shizi Equal Volume Transformation and Upgrading Project has further provided strong support for the implementation of relevant policies and sounded the "charge" of "exchanging the old for the new" of the old wind farm in Northeast China.

In January 2024, the Heilongjiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the "2024 Heilongjiang Provincial Wind Farm Transformation, Upgrading and Decommissioning Implementation Plan". The plan points out that wind farms that have been connected to the grid for more than 15 years or have a single unit capacity of less than 1.5 MW are encouraged to carry out transformation and upgrading. The project unit can choose to increase capacity or isochoric transformation according to the actual situation of the project and its own development needs, and increase the average single unit capacity of the transformed wind farm to more than 5 megawatts, and the average annual equivalent utilization hours to more than 2,500 hours.

The "Notice" and the "Administrative Measures for the Transformation, Upgrading and Decommissioning of Wind Farms" promulgated by the National Energy Administration in 2023 support each other, and point out the direction for the management of the transformation, upgrading and decommissioning of old wind farms in Heilongjiang Province.

It is foreseeable that with the successful implementation of more innovative pilot projects and the successive introduction of more favorable policies, the transformation and upgrading of the wind power market will usher in a period of concentrated outbreak.