Swansea-based Marine Power Systems (MPS) has completed the assembly and commissioning of its PowerBuoy, a grid simulator designed to operate alongside its quarter-scale prototype WaveSub wave energy converter.

Located at the FaBTest marine test site in Cornwall, the PowerBuoy will enable MPS to analyse the WaveSub’s energy-generating capacity in a wide range of sea conditions.

The installation of the company’s quarter-scale WaveSub will
follow in the coming weeks.

Designed by MPS with support from British and Irish contractors, including LCF Marine, Fibaform, SevernSubsea, Seawide Services and MJR, the PowerBuoy will be connected to the WaveSub by a power cable.

It will be capable of recording and collating key data sets, and transmitting them back to shore for analysis, allowing the device to be remotely operated from land.

A Wave Data Buoy, also deployed at the FaBTest site and operating independently of the PowerBuoy, will relay information on the current sea conditions to the MPS team.

This will allow the company to make valued comparisons of power output from actual sea states with advanced modelling simulations from desk-based studies and tank testing data (www.marinepowersystems.co.uk).

Data from the Wave Data Buoy will also ‘inform’ the location within the water column for the WaveSub to be positioned to optimise power generation.

MPS test engineer Sebastian Perry said: “The PowerBuoy will play a critical role during this energy generation test phase, by enabling us to optimise the WaveSub’s position in the water column remotely and to harvest data on the its power output response.

“We’re delighted that the assembly and commissioning of the PowerBuoy have been completed, and we look forward to the testing ahead of us.”