Abstract
Operational managers of wind turbines usually monitor a big fleet of turbines and thus need highly condensed information to identify underperforming turbines and to prioritize their work. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a solid and frequently used tool for this purpose. However, the KPIs used in the wind industry are not unified to date, which makes comparison in the industry difficult. Further, comprehensive standards on a set of KPIs for the wind industry are missing. This article identifies and recommends KPIs and provides detailed definitions to make KPIs comparable and to enable benchmarking. The starting point of this work is an industry survey with 28 participants intended to identify commonly used KPIs, collect various possible definitions, and prioritize them. Out of a total of 50 KPIs, we discuss in a next step 33 selected KPIs on performance, maintenance, and reliability in detail and recommend definitions, most of which are based on international standards. As a result, operators can easily use these recommendations to base their system of KPIs. By using this unified set of KPIs, operators can be well-prepared to conduct industrywide comparisons and benchmarks. The survey and this article will also serve as a basis for committee work of the FGW e.V. to develop a corresponding technical guideline.
Highlights
After the successful construction of a wind turbine, its operating phase begins
The Key performance indicators (KPIs) used in the wind industry are not unified to date, which makes comparison in the industry difficult
Out of a total of 50 KPIs, we discuss in a step 33 selected KPIs on performance, maintenance, and reliability in detail and recommend definitions, most of which are based on international standards
Summary
After the successful construction of a wind turbine, its operating phase begins. some wind turbines (WTs) in Germany are replaced by more modern and, above all, larger types before the standard design lifetime of 20 years [1] is reached [2], the utilization of the remaining useful life and continued operation after 20 years is important for many WTs [3, 4, 2]. A first manufacturer has announced new turbine types having a design life of up to 30 years [5]. This and the fact that operation and maintenance (O&M) accounts for a share between 20% and almost 40% of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) [6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11] demonstrates the high importance of sound operational management. The long-term performance of WTs and the achievement of targets and forecasts in various categories (e.g., technical, financial, safety) must be monitored for successful operational management.
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