How To Devise A Scheduled Maintenance Programme For A Wind Turbine
As wind energy becomes even more important to Europe’s renewable energy future, wind farm operators must be sure their turbines will keep turning.
Scheduled maintenance is one of the most important ways to keep wind farms operational and optimal, as it helps to identify potential failures before they happen and keep turbines in the best condition.
Consequently, devising a scheduled maintenance programme is a task of strategic importance and requires specialist support, insight, and expertise to not only plan but also deliver.
There are five major considerations when devising a maintenance programme for a wind turbine, these include:
1.Acknowledging the environment
The amount of maintenance a wind turbine requires depends on its location, age, the amount of energy it produces and its type. Turbines operating in very harsh mountainous conditions will need more maintenance than turbines on the edge of a conurbation, for example. Equally, the type of turbine impacts its maintenance needs too – horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) typically need more maintenance than their vertical axis counterparts.
2.Understanding good maintenance
To devise an appropriate scheduled maintenance programme for a wind turbine, it’s necessary to understand the most common tasks, such as inspecting, lubricating, cleaning, and repairing key wind turbine components. This includes blades, tower sections, couplings between gearboxes and generators, gearboxes, generator blade bearings and main ring bearings. The maintenance programme needs to include all of these tasks and at the right frequency level, as each component has its own expected lifespan and operational sensitivities to consider.
3. Anticipating wear and tear
The purpose of scheduled maintenance is to keep wind turbines running optimally and to fix things before they fail. As such, it’s essential to know the most common causes of wear and tear and how to remedy them. Some examples include:
• Prolonged operation in harsh weather can cause blades to crack over time. Water and weather ingress can cause the fibreglass to delaminate and the structure to become damaged, so it’s necessary to check regularly for cracks and damage.
• Bearings are one of the most expensive and important components in a wind turbine as they transmit power from the rotor to the tower. Failure can cause a turbine to lose efficiency, so regular lubrication and inspection are crucial to avoid costly unplanned downtime.
• Gearboxes are prone to corrosion as they’re made of steel. Regular inspection is required to ensure water egress is not causing the gearbox to wear too prematurely.
Although regular maintenance can help to increase the lifespan of components, it’s also important to plan for when they reach the end of their life and need to be replaced.
4. Creating a schedule
To turn all these requirements, insights and expectations into a scheduled maintenance plan, it’s necessary to have the support of a specialist wind turbine maintenance and component replacement partner. At AIS Wind Energy, we use the expertise we’ve gained repairing hundreds of wind turbines in the UK and across Europe to devise detailed plans that reflect the specific operational challenges, component lifespans, anticipated wear and tear and maintenance needs of our clients’ wind turbines.
We match this with the appropriate level of expertise – such as a dedicated project manager, certified mechanical and electrical technicians and heavy lift experts – and the required specialist lifting equipment.
5.Removing surprises and achieving efficiency.
Building reliability and consistency in to operations is a crucial priority for wind farm operators. Investing in a scheduled maintenance programme is a key strategy to achieve that goal, giving operators peace of mind that turbines are working optimally and will continue to do so well into the future.
Being on the front foot with maintenance tasks, anticipating wear and tear before it happens and calling on the expertise, help and guidance of a proven maintenance partner like AIS Wind Energy – can minimise downtime dramatically.
Contact us to find out more about our wind turbine maintenance and component replacement services and how AIS Wind Energy could support your operation.
