Maintenance Strategies for Large Offshore Wind Farms

TLDR

Offshore wind energy incurs operation and maintenance costs that can account for up to one‑third of total cost, higher than onshore, driven by spare parts, repairs, and downtime losses linked to turbine accessibility. A MATLAB‑based simulation tool was created to model wind‑farm operation with emphasis on failure and repair dynamics, and applied to a UK east‑coast site under several scenarios. The study shows that availability is highly sensitive to maintenance fleet size and scheduling, and quantifies cost savings achievable through improved availability.

Abstract

Up to one third of the total cost of energy from offshore wind generation is contributed by operation and maintenance (O&M). Compared to its onshore counterpart, this fraction is significantly higher. Costs are not only caused by spare-parts and repair actions, but also by production losses due to downtime. The accessibility of a turbine in case of a failure is one main aspect affecting downtime. Therefore, a tool has been developed and implemented in MATLAB to simulate the operating phase of a wind farm with special emphasis toward the modeling of failures and repair. As an example application, a site at the UK east coast was chosen, and a few distinct scenarios were considered. Results include how sensitive availability changes with respect to changes in maintenance fleet and maintenance scheduling strategy. A quantification of potential cost savings due to an increase in availability is also stated.