Ten major suppliers of turbines, components and design services join to study reliability

Garrad Hassan (GH) and nine other industry and academic leaders have already been collaborating to put together a successful proposal for EU support for the new RELIAWIND project, with the aim of measuring and understanding historical reliability to create a new generation of more intelligent and reliable wind turbines expected to generate electricity more cheaply.

The aim of RELIAWIND is to monitor component reliability, to propose new designs which are more reliable[1] and cheaper to maintain and operate, thereby aiming to increase availability to 99%[2].

“The project RELIAWIND led by GAMESA has received full endorsement from the European Commission, with its 13.5 score in the first request for proposals related to Non Nuclear Energy. It is located in the exclusive group of most highly marked projects, rendering it eligible for funding of up to €5.2M for its development.”, said a spokesperson for Gamesa Eolica.

To achieve the project’s aims, ten major suppliers of products and services to the wind energy industry have joined forces. These include turbine and component manufacturers, wind farm owners and operators, consultants and research institutions. The research comprises three key phases.

1. The determination of a statistical basis for prioritising improvements in component reliability, repair and maintenance strategies.

2. The evaluation of all plausible design failures and their consequences using techniques such as FMEA and FTA.

3. The proposal of new, more robust designs and intelligent systems for monitoring component health and scheduling preventative maintenance.

Garrad Hassan, will be coordinating the collection and interpretation of historical data as well as comparing and prioritising component design effort by using its 25 years’ knowledge of component failures, design load cases, control design and the development of international standards for the design, testing and operation of wind turbines.

“The project provides a fantastic opportunity to make a real and substantial step forward in the understanding of component and system reliability in the wind industry”, said Mark Spring, Garrad Hassan project engineer for RELIAWIND

The new technologies will be integrated in new generations of wind turbines, components and wind farms, aiming for compatibility between different manufacturers and clients to achieve maximum service guarantee.

[1] Reliability target: 20% increase of Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) in offshore and 10% in onshore wind. Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) will drop 50% offshore and 20% onshore.

[2] Availability will improve from 85-90% to 97-98% offshore and from 97-98% to 98-99% onshore.