Availability improvements from condition monitoring systems and performance based maintenance contracts

Carroll, James and May, Allan and McDonald, Alasdair and McMillan, David (2015) Availability improvements from condition monitoring systems and performance based maintenance contracts. In: European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) Offshore 2015, 2015-03-10 - 2015-06-12, Bella Center.

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Abstract

Condition monitoring systems and performance based maintenance contracts have the potential to significantly reduce the cost of energy (CoE) for offshore wind turbines. This paper describes the condition monitoring systems (CMS) available for offshore wind turbines. It details how CMS can be used in condition based maintenance (CBM) strategies and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using CBM strategies over time based maintenance (TBM) strategies. The paper also provides and compares the results from an empirical availability analysis on an offshore wind turbine population that has condition monitoring systems and a population that does not. Based on the comparison of these results conclusions are drawn on the value added by condition monitoring systems. This paper also focuses on performance based maintenance contracts (PBMC) and provides an overview of what performance based contracts are currently on offer and what guarantees they provide. An empirical availability analysis is also carried out on a population of offshore wind turbines with performance based maintenance contracts and a population without. These results are then compared and conclusions are drawn on how much value PBMCs add. These analyses show that offshore wind turbines that utilise CMS have on average ~4% higher availability per year and the population with PBMCs showed an availability ~2.5% higher than the population without.

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