Wind farm life cycle cost modelling based on oversizing capacity under load sharing configuration. (August 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kristjanpoller, Fredy; Cárdenas-Pantoja, Nicolás; Viveros, Pablo; Pascual, Rodrigo
• Is Part Of: Reliability engineering & system safety. Volume 236(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-08
• Subjects: Wind park sizing -- Load sharing -- Life cycle cost -- Wind farm reliability; Reliability (Engineering) -- Periodicals; System safety -- Periodicals; Industrial safety -- Periodicals; Fiabilité -- Périodiques; Sécurité des systèmes -- Périodiques; Sécurité du travail -- Périodiques; 620.00452
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2023.109307
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0951-8320

Abstract

Highlights: Novel methodology to size capacity of wind farms under life cycle scope. Improved Life Cycle Cost by increasing reliability and reducing Corrective Maintenance costs up to 18.48%. Improved service level by increasing Availability of the Wind farm in up to 2.11%. Reduced inefficiency costs due to unavailability up to 2.06%. Improved efficiency of maintenance policies by potentially extending the time between failures. Abstract: Renewable energies are becoming the norm and as such they are responsible for the energy supply of large cities, therefore, there is a need for this energy sources to be able to deliver a determined level of service. The latter is especially complex for wind farms due to the high stress and rough climate conditions in which they operate. A higher service level is usually achieved by injecting budget on the operation of plants, namely, maintenance and asset management to reduce the risk of failure and outage. This article proposes a methodology to study the improvement of the service level, availability, and reliability of a plant from the design stage through oversizing the allocation of Wind Turbine Generators (WTG) without compromising the project Life Cycle Cost, indeed, results reveal up to a 2.11% of improvement on availability, a reduction of up to 18.48% on corrective maintenance costs and up to a 1.44% reduction of total differential costs. Furthermore, the evidence found suggests that the load sharing perspective imprints less stress on the WTG, enabling higher service levels at reduced costs and better results for maintenance and asset management planning, thus improving efficiency focussing on preventive maintenance and reliability improving.