Presentations

Abstract

Wind assets valuation is playing a key role for a successful business model. Evaluating the remaining useful life of operating wind assets is the basis for creating multiple economic scenario and for choosing the one that meets company's goals. While the upcoming IEC 61400-28 will support the industry with defining lifetime extension best practices, it will also focus on ensuring safety of the operating wind assets. Accurate calculation of remaining useful life requires both analytical and practical analysis, for which various input data are valuable. The resulting uncertainty calculation enables the owner and operator to assess the risks and define ways to mitigate it. After conducting lifetime evaluations over more than 25 GW worldwide, UL analyzed results of these calculations depending on the available input data at site. Standard fields of SCADA data and event logs are mandatory for a lifetime evaluation while a proper SCADA analysis is key to understand the assets operational status. Among the different variables, the control strategy should be verified and aligned with the design specifications. The availability calculations as energy-based can be assessed, wind variables and production can be used for the long-term energy assessment. Review of the logs is a key element to estimate the number of hard and emergency stops that could affect the structural integrity of the assets. The impact of the number of years available, the minimum amount of variables to be considered and the comparison with other sources of information, such as wind measurement inputs based on met mast / RSD will be shared. The emphasis will be made on how the availability of some data can be a game changer for owners and operators to define the most relevant strategy for their operational asset complying with their safety and sustainability goals as well as their ESG commitment.