Making O&M More Efficient Len Nones, Trent Lowery, Leslie Payne, & Crys Matthews 12/1/2011

Intro When one considers the cost of wind energy, one cannot leave out the of maintenance and repair costs. On wind farms on land, this can account for up to 15% of the cost, and on offshore wind farms it can be as much as 30%. Offshore wind is the most expensive due to its distance from shore, the weather, and the type of transportation used to reach it. Maintenance is defined as all technical and managerial actions during the life cycle of the equipment to keep it working or restoring it to its optimum performance. So maintenance includes everything from testing the gearbox oil to replacing the generator or other major components. The cost of which will include labor, parts, equipment, ect. Maintenance can be divided into two major categories; corrective and preventative. Corrective maintenance is performed whenever a component has failed. This is the most expensive form of maintenance and some can be avoided with proper preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance is anything preformed to prevent a failure in the equipment. Scheduled maintenance falls under this category. This is when maintenance is performed on a schedule and not on the status of the equipment, such as oil changes, tightening of bolts, inspections, etc. Condition based maintenance is work that is done due to a drop in performance is noticed by monitoring systems. The use of condition monitoring systems in wind turbines is becoming an increasingly important part of managing a wind farms maintenance. It can be used to create a more effective

maintenance plan, creating less unexpected failures, and less downtime. Opportunistic maintenance is maintenance that is preformed to prevent a failure in one part of the

system, while the tower is down due to another part needing repair. For example, if the gearbox is being repaired or worked on, the generator could have its brushes on the generator could be replaced since the tower is already out of service. Data and Planning Preventative maintenance is done according to manufacturers manual for each turbine and is supplemented by observations from the operations team. Activities include fluid checks, greasing, torque checks, changing filters, brake and blade inspection, and electrical inspections (cables, fuses, batteries, voltages, etc.) and are usually done every 6 months. One issue with preventative maintenance is that issues can arise between scheduled maintenance and the fixed threshold alerts begin after a real problem occurs to prevent catastrophe. A lot of preventative maintenance can be stretched out over time if proper predictive maintenance is done. Predictive Maintenance is done through the use of on/offline sensors connected to the WTG and monitored by the operations team. The vibration analysis, oil analysis, and thermography data generated allows for better planning of repairs, advanced parts orders, maximizes production life and minimizes the amount of time a turbine will be parked. a few setback to predictive maintenance are that it is hard (physically) to get to the equipment in the nacelle as it is in a confined space and is 300+ feet in the air, inconsistent operation due to wind speed which makes collecting data a longer process, and the time it takes for technicians to analyze the data and get the maintenance scheduled. Improvement to maintenance strategies can be done by assessing the most important parts that could fail. For instance, repairing or replacing a gearbox can be

extremely costly. Gearboxes need to be aligned with precision to avoid excessive wear on the gears and bearings. Vibration analysis via mounted accelerometers at the input and output shafts and a high resolution spectrum analyzer allows for a larger frequency range that includes side band data which helps determine which gears are at fault. Lubrication and fluid conditioning need to be monitored to ensure longevity in the life of the bearings and gears as they are under high loads from high gusts of wind and internal vibration and are susceptible to corrosion and rifling. If caught early on the damage prevented greatly outweighs the reactive or corrective costs, which could be more than just a gearbox (blades, nacelle, generator). When repairing or replacing components costs of crane, helicopter, boat, shipping, vs. production losses should be calculated to determine the most cost effective approach. Weather is going to play a major factor in what amount of work can be done and what equipment can be used to complete the job. Unavailable equipment or bad weather are huge cost factors as loss of production is prolonged. Maintenance is a necessity in any industry to gain the most in what you are trying to achieve. In the wind industry it is crucial to have a solid maintenance schedule. Not only to fix problems, but also try to prevent them all together. There are five keywords in maintenance scheduling to remember that can help in this process, repair, inspection interval, aver age time between failures, reliability, and availability. It is inevitable that there are going to be repairs on a wind turbine. This can be split into three categories, based on the repair itself, types of equipment necessary, and transportation type. Under the category of regular maintenance involving repair cleaning and reset there is no equipment needed more than the technician themselves replacing

small to medium parts, completed by the internal crane that is equipped inside the turbine. On a large scale failure, such as a gearbox would need help from a crane on the outside of the wind turbine to reach the nacelle. During inspection interval maintenance, it is beneficial to incorporate some kind of preventative maintenance to your regular scheduled repairs. Large repairs can become very pricy, and often times could have been prevented if only there were some kind of preventative maintenance. Conducting a thorough inspection of a wind turbine at least every 180 days in considered a positive preventative maintenance routine. After discussing inspection interval maintenance, good data to have on hand would be the average time between failures of any component on the wind turbine. Having an idea or rough time frame of a failure, could cut your repair costs by a large margin. It would also help in completing a checklist during your regular scheduled maintenance on less checked components. Reliability is the ability of components or system to perform their function under a given operational condition and for a predicted period of time. Availability is a

fundamental measure of reliability. It can be calculated based on down time, when an interruption occurred and the frequency of interruptions for a specific period of time. Reliability Centered Maintenance Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a structured system of organizing maintenance routines on wind farms. RCM Assessments are beneficial to wind farms in order to optimize both performance and longevity of components within the system while also taking into account both the costs of replacement and labor. In seeking to find a critical balance between both preventative maintenance and corrective maintenance the

system's goal is to find the proper solution to an upcoming problem at the juncture before the problem arises and becomes much more costly to correct. There are three main steps to a reliability Centered Maintenance Assessment 1. Determine where and when a component may fail from reports on experience. 2. Determine what could have been done to prevent the failure. 3. Implement a proactive plan aimed at preventing the component failure from happening again by means of targeted maintenance and part replacement. In determining the proper timing of maintenance operation an RCM assessment consults with a Scientific Evaluation and Measurement Program database. This database is a massive conglomeration of commonly used wind turbine parts and components. The database consists of information pertaining to how long the part was in use, and the aspects of how it failed. From this information an intuitive conclusion can be made as the numbers are averaged and applied to units in service as to the articles usable lifespan. The data collected will be used to make a detailed schedule of when components have reached the end of their usable lifespan and should be changed out for a new part. Changing out parts on a turbine based on the RCM analysis reduces downtime of turbines by grouping together like timed and located components on a regular maintenance schedule. An example of this would be similar to the manufacturers recommended maintenance schedule for your vehicle. Certain parts are designed and observed to fail at certain points and scheduling maintenance in this instance keeps you on the road longer and safer. Similarly the scheduled maintenance instances on a wind turbine are designed to both maximize safety and profits.

Works Cited Barber, S., & Golbeck, P. (2011, November 30). Wind Turbine Maintenance & Condition Monitoring. Retrieved from World Wind Energy Association: http://www.wwindea.org/technology/ch03/en/3_4_3.html Bell, D. (2010, February 5). The Next Generation in Wind Power Assest Management. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from Windpower Engineering & Development: http://www.windpowerengineering.com/maintenance/condition-monitoringmaintenance/the-next-generation-in-wind-power-asset-management/ Manouchedhrabadi, M. K. (2011). Reliable Centered Maintenance (RCM) Reliable and Risk Centered Maintenance (RRCM) in Offshore Wind farms (Case StudySweden). University of Gotland, Wind Energy Department. Veiscas, C. (2010). The Changing direction of owner/operators towards a consistant, reliable, durable and repeatable system of operation and maintenance. Madrid.