Atlantis starts AR1500 monitoring after grid outage

Atlantis Resources has revealed that the AR1500 tidal turbine is currently being monitored to assess the effects of an unplanned grid outage.

The outage was caused by a third party and was unrelated to the turbine itself, according to Atlantis.

The news follows a sustained period of autonomous operation of the turbine at full output, and a successful automated shut down procedure on the occurrence of the grid fault, Atlantis said.

It is expected that the AR1500 will be retrieved at the next opportunity for a full systems inspection before undergoing the contractual performance testing regime.

This goes in line with the approach adopted for the Andritz Hydro Hammerfest systems, which are currently undergoing upgrades at Nigg Energy Park prior to planned redeployment in May.

To remind, the AR1500 was installed at the MeyGen site in the Pentland Firth, off Scotland in February. A few days after the installation, Atlantis revealed that the turbine has operated at full power and exported the electricity to the grid.

Late in March, Atlantis said the 6MW Phase 1A MeyGen project was near 400MWh of tidal power generation.

The works on the next 6MW phase of the MeyGen project are due to begin later this year.