Wave power technology company Seabased is optimizing its precision electrical system that channels inputs from many generators - each absorbing power from different waves - into a single stream of electricity that is ready for the grid.
To get a sense of the system's complexity, the way it operates is loosely similar to a traffic system that can respond to individual cars and manage a seamless traffic flow through an intersection at incredible speed - maximizing that flow by the millisecond.
"The electrical system is unique in its ability to passively channel the power from multiple generators through the right inverters at the right instant to create a single stream of grid-ready power," explains Anders Kronberg, Seabased's lead electrical engineer.
The Seabased electrical system is housed in a Marine Substation (MSS) on the ocean floor, where it is connected to an array of linear generators. Each generator has a cable leading to a buoy on the surface. The buoys move with the waves, and this motion lifts and lowers magnets called translators inside the generators, producing power. In a standard array, 20 generators will transmit to one MSS. Though the power comes in asynchronously, from several different waves happening at different times, the MSS converts all these inputs into a smooth stream of 33kv DC grid-ready electricity. From the MSS, standard sea cables deliver this electricity to the grid.
