M&T station is the accepted primary Lab in India for Wind Turbine Testing as per the National Lab Policy of MNRE. GoI and all other laboratories operating in the field of Wind Turbine Testing will be secondary labs to NIWE. Together they will work to build the capacity and delivery mechanism for world class testing for Wind Turbines in India for all the stakeholders.

It is the first NABL Accredited Test Laboratory in India for providing the services related to Type testing of Wind Turbines in the context of wind turbine type certification, in compliance with relevant standards and rules. The Accreditation was acquired in the year 2006 and still holds the distinction of being the only NABL Accredited lab in India for the past 13 years.

NIWE's Wind Turbine Test Station (WTTS) near Kayathar in Tamil Nadu was established in the year 1999 with the technical assistance of Riso National Laboratory, Denmark under Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) grant and with financial assistance and guidance from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India. Presently plans are underway for developing the second Wind Turbine Test Station exclusively for the purpose of Offshore Wind Turbines, which when commissioned will be the first in India.

The Kayathar WTTS has the following facilities:
• Availability of two test beds to test wind turbines up to a total capacity of 1650 kW & are expandable with readily available grid connection for each test bed.
• Readily available met masts in front of each test bed, designed to heights of 75 meters and 50 meters for acquiring meteorological data at the hub heights of the test turbines.
• Two control rooms, one for each test bed with state-of-art data acquisition systems and one office building.

The Research Station operating at WTTS and open for all the Wind Turbine Stakeholders has the following features:
• Established in one of the Windy Pass Area namely Senkottai Pass considered as the best windy area in Tamil Nadu, the research station is spread over 100 acres of land.
• Total Wind Turbine installed capacity at the Research facility is 6400 kW consisting of nine number of 200 kW (Stall regulated fixed speed), one 600 kW (Pitch regulated fixed speed), one 2000 kW (Pitch regulated Variable Speed) and one 2000 kW (Pitch regulated DFIG) Wind Turbines.
• 75 kWp Solar Power Plant for Hybrid studies.
• On line Wind Data Collection from 3 different Metrological Masts of different heights 50m, 75m and 120m at Research Station, Kayathar.
• Asia's 1^st exclusive Maker's Space for SWT innovators under development at WTTS.
• SWT Blade & Drive Train Hub Test Facility under Design and will be executed in the RE Demo Lab under construction at WTTS.

The WTTS Test Station has currently two test beds with grid connection to test wind turbines up to 1250kW and 400kW capacities. The number of test beds can be enhanced and higher capacity wind turbines can be tested when offered.

Each bed with its control room is equipped with sophisticated data acquisitions systems having validated software and state of art architecture.

Currently two met masts are available in front of each test bed.
• The terrain features are gently sloping towards the western direction which is also the predominant wind direction and the wind season is from April to September during which testing will be conducted.

Tests for Wind Turbines

• Power Performance measurements
• Safety and Function testing
• Yaw efficiency
• Load Measurements & Duration Test (exclusively for SWT)
• Special measurements tailored for customer requests.

The Division also takes up field measurements at client locations on request.

Advantages of Testing Wind Turbines

The measurements of a wind turbine would assist a

• Wind turbine manufacturer striving for better design and performance.
• Wind turbine purchaser in specifying requirements for design and performance.
• Wind turbine operator in verifying and monitoring performance.
• Wind turbine investors in wind farm projects based on what wind turbines can deliver regards to its design and performance.

We, a part of NIWE, are committed to provide credible, prompt and reliable service in testing of Wind Turbine to our valued customers in the wind energy sector.

We shall maintain highest standards of professional ethics, confidentiality & impartiality in our operations. Our methods and practices are transparent and conforming to national and international standards.

We are committed to ensure competence of all personnel who are involved in the testing operation in order to maintain consistency in our operation.

We shall strive to meet the expectations of our customer through implementation of IS/ISO/IEC 17025 and continually improve upon it.

• The testing services of the Division conforms to the Quality Management System ISO 9001:2015, awarded by DNV and valid since 11.08.2016.

DNV Certificate

• Accreditation - The testing services of NIWE have been assessed and accredited in accordance to the requirements of the ISO/IEC 17025 by National Accreditation Board for testing and calibrations laboratories, New Delhi. NABL has a MRA (Mutual Recognition Arrangement) with APLAC (Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation) which in turn has a MRA with ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation).

CERTIFICATE OF ACCREDITATION



• Success stories - During the past 22 years of operation have completed 85 testing services Projects for both National & International clientele in Small & Large Wind Turbine Testing since the year 1999.

Creation of the following new national test facilities are at various stages of progress and the facilities are expected to be dedicated to the service of the nation soon.

• Blade Test Centre for Large & Small Wind Turbine Blades
• Drive Train Test Centre for Small Wind Turbines
• Fault Ride Through (LVRT) Test facility
• Power Quality Measurements
• Acoustics (for Wind Turbine ) measurements
• Avian Fauna Study
• Environmental Impact Assessment study

Realizing the immense potential and importance of solar energy, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India launched National Solar Mission (NSM) in 2010 to provide fillip to the promotion of solar industry in the country. This initiative also aims at promoting ecologically sustainable growth to meet the global efforts to mitigate climate changes. The availability of high quality ground measured solar radiation data in the country till 2011 was unreliable and inadequate. Limited sources of data is compiled & published by India Meteorological Department (IMD) stations and satellite data. Non-availability of bankable and investor grade ground measured solar data was a major hurdle in the implementation of solar power projects in the country. To overcome these deficiencies, they launched a national program in 2010 for the establishment of a network of Solar Radiation Resource Assessment (SRRA) stations to collect solar radiation resource data covering GHI, DNI, DHI and associated meteorological parameters in a phased manner through National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), by establishing an exclusive SRRA unit. Under phase-I program of SRRA, 51 SRRA stations have been commissioned in 10 states and 1 UT and under phase-II sanctioned in 2013. Another 60 SRRA stations have been commissioned in 17 states and 3 UT cover the entire India. Besides the SRRA stations , 4 advanced measurement stations also have been commissioned under phase-II in the country to collect site specific attenuation of solar radiation due to various atmospheric constituents . NIWE has thus established the world's largest solar radiation monitoring network, spread in 115 locations across India. High resolution 1 minute data from these 115 stations are received through GPRS technology in the server established in NIWE and a fully automatic quality control mechanism as per international standard is in force for data cleaning to make the data reliable.

For the development of solar power plants, high quality ground measured solar radiation data is essential.

Schemes & Activities- Solar Radiation Resource Assessment-SRRA stations

A typical SRRA station consists of two towers of 1.5 m and 6 m tall. The 1.5 m tall tower is equipped with a solar tracker, one Pyrheliometer and two pyranometers (one with shading disc) to measure direct, global and diffuses irradiance respectively. The 6 m tall tower houses meteorological sensors for measuring ambient temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed & direction, rain fall and a state of-the-art data acquisition system. The solar sensors are traceable to World Radiation Centre/World Radiometric Reference (WRC/WRR) and the meteorological sensors are traceable to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) respectively. The SRRA station is powered by solar energy for independent operation and has power autonomy for a week. A trigger switch is also part of the SRRA station to track the cleaning status of the station on a daily basis.

One hundred and eleven (111) SRRA stations have been commissioned in the country in 29 States and 3 Union Territories (UT) during the period May 2011 to June 2014. The specifications of the sensors / instruments used in both the phases are identical, except for the inclusion of lightning arrestor and energy meter in the second phase of SRRA stations. Data collection sampling is 1 sec and basic data average is 1 minute.

To quantify the site specific attenuation of solar radiation due to various atmospheric constituents, four AMS have been established in the country one each in North, East, South and West respectively at National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE),-Gurugram, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST)- Howrah, Prathyusha Engineering College (PEC)- Tiruvallur and Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI)- Gandhi Nagar (Gujarat). As the scattering and absorption etc. are wavelength specific, ten independent narrow wavelength channels are used for the solar spectrum analysis. Each wavelength has an independent Collimator and Detector for simultaneous measurement of all wavelengths. AMS is also equipped to provide information on Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) of the atmosphere, reflectivity of the earth's surface (Albedo), incoming long wave radiation (sky radiation) and atmospheric visibility for Research & Developmental purpose.

Typical SRRA Station	Advanced Measurement Station

Calibration Laboratory

1. 111 Solar Radiation Resource Assessment (SRRA) stations have been established in the country, one of the world's such biggest measurement programme under MNRE scheme.
2. 10 SRRA stations have been commissioned, 8 in Maharashtra and 2 in Kerala under SNA scheme.
3. Four Advanced Measurement Stations (AMS) have been established in the country and these 4 stations are in the prestigious BSRN network, an arm of World Climate Research Program (WCRP) of WMO. India is the 2^nd country in Asia after Japan with 4 such stations in this elite network.
4. Based on the measured SRRA data from the field stations in conjunction with high resolution satellite data, the Indian Solar Radiation Atlas was developed. The atlas gives any solar stake holder, the solar resources at any point in the country along with annual energy production (AEP) from solar power plant for that location.
5. Established calibration laboratory at par with International standard for solar sensors at NIWE-Chennai.

• India's Wind Potential Atlas at 120m agl
• Wind / Solar Resource Assessment studies in Leh Ladakh UT
• Evaluation of test site for Type testing
• Guidelines for Scheduling Activities for Type Testing
• DNV Certificate
• Certificate of Accreditation
• MNRE Call for R&D Proposal in thrust areas of Small Wind Energy Hybrid System
• Fourteenth List of Empanelment of Small Wind Turbines
• Guidelines on the technical requirement to be fulfilled by a small wind turbine manufacturer for empanelment with MNRE/NIWE
• Call for R&D Proposal in thrust areas of Small Wind Energy Hybrid System
• Calibration of solar instruments under commercial mode
• Calibration requisition form