Some Results and Conclusions
This article focuses on historical component failure and the availability of replacements in both onshore and offshore wind farms. It also looks at techniques available to calculate the effect of mean time between failure of critical components and mean time to repair and how such techniques can be applied to all projects. It considers the impact of failures on year-to-year availability, the sufficiency of contractual warranties, financial planning for repairs and current best practice operation and maintenance (O&M) strategies for projects. This includes evaluating what proactive measures can be taken and how condition monitoring techniques can improve mean time to repair times.
By Steve Buckley, Team Leader, Sinclair Knight Merz, UK
All wind projects have a time-limited warranty and O&M agreement. It is therefore important that owners make early financial arrangements to deal with component replacement costs and are aware of how availability might fluctuate year-on-year and whether availability warranties written into O&M agreements contain liquidated damages sufficient to cover the lower availability years.
