Opportunistic maintenance for offshore wind : a review and proposal of future framework

McMorland, J. and Collu, M. and McMillan, D. and Carroll, J. and Coraddu, A. (2023) Opportunistic maintenance for offshore wind : a review and proposal of future framework. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 184. 113571. ISSN 1879-0690 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2023.113571)

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Abstract

As new offshore wind development sites move further from shore and existing sites enter their post-subsidy operating period, it is expected that operational expenditure (OpEx) will increase. In order to overcome these challenges, a more flexible and cost-effective maintenance solution is needed. One such solution is opportunistic maintenance (OM). This work provides an overview of the maintenance strategy used within other industries before providing an in-depth review of the work specific to offshore wind. The existing literature fails to agree on the specific definition of the term. This work proposes an all-encompassing definition of the term, reviewing maintenance ‘opportunities’ and their corresponding ‘action/response’. The review found that maintenance opportunities are either internal or weather-based, with each opportunity having a pre-determined trigger/response. This work proposes the introduction of a market-based opportunity, which has not been previously considered. As offshore wind farms now face increasing curtailment and negative pricing threats, this new OM framework, OM+, view these periods as maintenance opportunities. OM+ also provides a new definition for recording and reporting availability — moving from time/energy-based availability to market-based availability.

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