Abstract
Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs are estimated to account for 14%–30% of total Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) project lifecycle expenditure according to a range of studies. In this respect, identifying factors affecting operational costs and availability are vital for wind farm operators to achieve the most profitable decisions. Many OWFs are built in stages and the important factors may not be consistent for the different phases. To address this issue, three OWF case studies are defined to represent two phases and a complete project. An initial qualitative screening sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the most important factors of O&M affecting operating cost and availability. The study concluded that the important factors for total O&M cost were access and repair costs along with failure rates for both minor and major repairs. For time-based availability, the important factors identified were those related to the length of time conducting the maintenance tasks, i.e. the operation duration and the working day length. It was found that the two stages had similar results, but these were different compared to the complete project. In this case, the results provide valuable information to OWF operators during the project development and decision making process.
Highlights
Offshore wind is a burgeoning industry for electrical generation in Europe
Aspects that an operations team may encounter during the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) phase are turbine and support structure reliability; accessibility via vessels; transfer of technicians and components to the turbine; meteorological conditions and condition monitoring
This paper presents how the important factors contributing to O&M cost and availability change when building offshore wind farm (OWF) projects in phases using the application of the well-known Morris method for sensitivity analysis [19]
Summary
Offshore wind is a burgeoning industry for electrical generation in Europe. Operation and Maintenance (O&M) is estimated to account for 14%e30% of total offshore wind farm (OWF) project lifecycle costs [1,2]. Some elements are uncertain and difficult to predict, such as meteorological conditions and turbine reliability. Aspects that an operations team may encounter during the O&M phase are turbine and support structure (such as a transition piece) reliability; accessibility via vessels; transfer of technicians and components to the turbine; meteorological conditions and condition monitoring. The offshore environment presents challenges that make OWF operation different to an onshore wind farm. Unlike onshore wind farms, large OWFs are often built in different stages or extended. Sections of projects are completed and move into the operations stage before installation of another section. Examples in the UK are Walney, Gunfleet Sands and the planned Dogger Bank project
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