Don’t throw caution to the wind with offshore turbine maintenance
The European Union’s push away from fossil fuels toward renewables, along with falling costs, has seen offshore wind thrive. And the sector is about to receive another boost, now that the focus on and investment in floating wind turbines is reaching fruition.
This incredible feat of engineering has the potential to totally reshape offshore renewables, allowing for greater volumes of energy to be captured and at lower costs when compared with existing fixed turbines.
Unlike fixed wind turbines, floating devices can be placed in deeper waters of up to 150m, which should allow them to tap into the vast energy resources available further offshore, where wind speeds tend to be higher and steadier.
In the last few years there have been a number of one-off floating turbines tested around the world, but the success of a whole wind farm of floating turbines has yet to be tested. That is until now. In just a few months five floating wind turbines will be piloted off the coast of Aberdeenshire as part of a large wind farm that is expected to generate enough electricity to power 20,000 homes each year.
As a company immersed in condition monitoring, we’re excited to see how these new turbines are maintained. Much like their fixed counterparts, floating wind turbines will be remotely located, which means maintenance and servicing will be expensive. This cost will increase significantly in the event of a problem, when fixing issues or replacing parts is likely to be time intensive, and therefore very costly.
With productivity and profitability at risk, a reactive approach to maintenance would be a huge gamble. This makes preventative maintenance a necessity. But even so, how is maintenance conducted? Surely towing a turbine back to port would be far to expensive given how far out to sea they will be located.
In fixed turbines, vibration monitoring has become an essential tool in identifying problems developing in assets – allowing remedial action to be taken prior to failure or damage to parts. Despite the challenging environmental conditions experienced out at sea being very harsh and complicating the vibration monitoring process, there is still a role for it in floating turbines. It remains the only truly effective way of monitoring wear in rotating components early enough to make the necessary changes to avoid downtime.
To date, we’re yet to see an explanation of the methods wind farm operators will be implementing to maintain their floating wind farms. However, given the complexities and challenges of maintaining turbines, we hope the powers that be look beyond reactive maintenance and give appropriate attention to condition monitoring.
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