Influence of tidal parameters on SeaGen flicker performance

This paper presents the analysis of the study of the flicker emitted from the 1.2 MW tidal energy converter (TEC), SeaGen, against varying tidal parameters. This paper outlines the main elements of the TEC itself, the environment it is located in and the measurement set up. In this paper, the flicker emitted by the TEC is compared with the different tidal parameters, including flood and ebb tides, tidal speed, water depth and turbulence strength and intensity. Flicker emissions have been calculated from measured data in over 90 measurement (10 min) periods, and all of the tidal parameters vary significantly over that testing period. This allows for a detailed statistical and graphical analysis of the variation of flicker with the variation of the tidal parameters outlined above. It is found, with the exception of tidal speed, that there is no strong relationship between flicker emissions and any other tidal parameter. As SeaGen is an asymmetrical TEC with full blade pitching for flood and ebb generation, it was also found that the expected difference of flicker emissions owing to the effect of the submersed crossbeam was not significant. The TEC harmonic performance versus tidal speed is also presented.