Function
Maintenance and service activities ensure the ongoing operational integrity of the wind turbines and associated balance of plant, including planned maintenance and unplanned service in response to faults, either proactive or reactive.
What it costs*
About £47 million per annum for a 1 GW wind farm.
Who supplies them
Maintenance and service activities are provided by a combination of the owner’s in-house resources, wind turbine suppliers and third party service providers. These are further defined under the sub-headings below.
Suppliers include: Cognitive Business, James Fisher Marine Services, Boston Energy, ONYX Insight, Pict Offshore and Swire Renewable Energy.
Key facts
There is considerable focus in the industry on optimising maintenance and service activities to reduce OPEX whilst also achieving the targeted levels of availability and reliability.
This optimisation is best achieved by taking a lifetime view of the project economics, focussing on the levelised cost of energy. Operational management teams will consider the whole operational system in order to achieve this.