Wind Energy is entering a new era with warranties coming to an end, recent turbine failures and the need for wind farms to operate at maximum capacity. O&M really can make or break a project – tipping it from loss maker to a profit turning business. ORTECH has the experience as both a developer and consultant to assist with an overall strategy for operating your Wind Farm.

O&M Planning

There can be overwhelming unknowns when preparing operations and maintenance plans and budgets, especially during the post warranty period. What will fail, when, and what will it cost? Our staff will work with you to develop detailed asset management strategies that will maximize the performance of your wind farm. We can provide valuable advice throughout the entire life cycle of your wind farm.  The following discusses how ORTECH manages the (4) four key components of O&M Planning.

Strategy

At the outset it is necessary to define what constitute O & M costs. For the purpose of developing a strategy, there are three types of O & M costs are considered:

(i) Routine Maintenance.
(ii) Planned Maintenance.
(iii) Reactive Maintenance.

The next step in developing a comprehensive strategy is a review of operating logs, maintenance records and SCADA data. ORTECH can then develop a planned O&M program including maintenance and inspection schedule, spare parts inventory and budget. The objective of the strategy is to increase availability, reduce downtime due to unscheduled outages and provide reasonable forecasts of ongoing maintenance expenses.

Planned Maintenance

ORTECH technical staff is ideally skilled in determining the makeup of a planned maintenance program. The key to planned maintenance is to identify those components that are subject to wear and tear before the accumulated mechanical stress on the component results in catastrophic failure requiring costly reactive maintenance.

There are four steps to the process:

1. Estimate the required frequency of refurbishment and repairs to major components;
2. Calculate the expected future costs of replacement or refurbishment;
3. Review the operational history and inspection reports of each WTG to determine which WTGs require earlier attention than others – if in doubt, mechanical inspections of the WTGs should be undertaken, particularly if condition monitoring has not been installed.
4. Set out a maintenance plan with first priority given to WTGs with the most problematic record of performance and concentrating on components subject to the most mechanical stress – such as gear boxes and drive trains.

The objectives of this approach are to minimize lost revenues by scheduling maintenance for low wind periods, generally the summer months, reducing crane costs by spreading mobilization and de-mobilization expenses over a number of WTGs, and reduce component repair costs by timely refurbishment of components before normal operation stresses escalate into more costly repairs or catastrophic failure occurs.

Parts Planning

ORTECH has the technical experience to setup a Parts Planning program. For example spare parts and components can be organized so a standby refurbished gearbox or generator could replace one requiring repairs or refurbishment. This serial replacement of components has two pre-conditions: (i) standardized replacement components and (ii) an available component inventory. The costs of carrying the component inventory are offset by decreased downtime and reduced crane costs. By scheduling major maintenance for a cluster of turbines, crane costs, which are significant, are spread over a number of turbines.

Budgets

There is the variety of pre-installed equipment, whether service is being conducted under warranty or out of warranty, the budget available to the owner or operator for service, and even what theories about O&M and appetite for risk to which an owner prescribes. Some wind plant owners spend every available penny upgrading to sophisticated condition monitoring systems hoping to predict and plan for component repairs. Others minimise service costs, reacting to repairs as they happen.

ORTECH can assist developers in estimating costs by a proactive approach.