Buoy Application

Buoy Application
Lake Michigan : St. Joseph, MI
Cook Nuclear Power Plant
Ed Verhamme
Project Engineer
LimnoTech
Ann Arbor, MI
Use of Nearshore Buoys in the Great Lakes
January 27, 2012
Study Area – Southeastern Lake Michigan
Donald C. Cook Nuclear Generating Station
Unit 1 & 2
2,110 MW
Discharge
Intake
Image credit: Bing Maps
Project Overview
• Primary Data Needs:
– Once-through cooling uses lake water for excess heat
dissipation. Knowledge = Efficiency
– Permits require understanding of physical and
biological environment around the intake and
discharge
– Offshore health and safety data
• Approach:
– Collect temperature and velocity data at several
locations
– Use a real-time buoy to measure additional parameters
at a single station
Why a Real-Time Buoy?
• #1 Reason – Provide wave height data to
offshore drilling team
• #2 Reason – Plant operational support
Real Time Monitoring Buoy
• Designed by Univ of Mich,
built by S2 Yachts, paid for by
AEP, deployed by LimnoTech
• Deployed 2.5 miles from
shore in 70 ft of water
• Sensors
– Air Temp, RH, wind speed & dir,
solar rad
– Water Temperature (9 depths)
– Wave height, period, direction
– Water speed & dir (1 m bins)
• Reports every 10 min
(compared with hourly for
NDBC buoys)
Data Access Priorities
• #1 – Data access for AEP
– University of Michigan OEL
• #2 – Share data with other users
– National Data Buoy Center www.ndbc.noaa.gov
– University of Michigan OEL
– Great Lakes Observing System www.glos.us
• #3 – Provide quality data to all users
– Hard coded QA/QC checks
– Manual QA/QC checks
– “Community” QA/QC checks (users email/call when
they see a problem)
Wave Height
NDBC Buoy vs. Local Buoy
45007
NOAA Wave Model vs. Buoy Data
Wave Height (m)
Model
Buoy
Day of Year (2011)
• Nowcast model is accurate and “local
• NOAA, GLOS, and LimnoTech are developing
new tools to view wind/wave model
Image Credit: G. Lang & D. Schwab, NOAA GLERL
Water Temperature
Water Velocity
Quotes from Users
• John Taylor, NOAA NWS Northern Indiana: This data will be very
useful to us both for our nearshore marine forecast and our project
to improve our SRF/rip current forecasts in the Great Lakes
• Ryan Gerard, Third Coast Surf Shop, St. Joseph, MI: Nice to have a
local buoy with real-time data. It will definitely come in handy when
we are planning where to surf.
• Lou Beisel, Fisherman, St. Joseph, MI: Kudo's to your Buoy U-Glos
Station 45026!!!!! I will be watching the info almost every day this
season. Love the historical data. I am passing the site on to all my
fishing friends. Thanks to everyone involved.
• Joyce Dunkin, Project Manager, LimnoTech: Words cannot express
how much we appreciate having that buoy for the offshore
project. It plays a major role in our weather monitoring for health
and safety efforts - thanks a bunch!!!
Lessons Learned
• If you build it…they will come
– NOAA (NWS, NDBC, GLERL)
– Boaters & Fishermen (forums, word of mouth)
– Others (surfers, shoreline property owners, TV, Radio,
etc..)
• Local real-time observations trump other sources
of information
– NDBC mid lake buoys (hourly and less reliable)
– NWS Forecasts (cover large areas over long time)
– Wind and Wave Models (hard to find/interpret)
• Capital costs and O & M costs are reasonable
– Capital cost is not significantly larger than non-realtime buoy
– Labor savings alone (offshore drilling) paid for the cost
difference
Questions?
Ed Verhamme
[email protected]
734 332 1200
Thanks to
Guy Meadows, UM OEL
NOAA NWS Northern
Indiana