Cases And Applications
Impact of Start-Ups and Shutdowns on Wind Turbine Service Life
SCOPE- What is the real impact of wildlife protection and grid-related shutdowns?
- How do start-stop and restart events affect asset lifetime?
- Are these effects being properly considered in park profitability assessments?
Aeroblade has developed a dedicated methodology to quantify the impact of start, stop and restart events on the lifetime of wind turbines across different technologies. Applied to 2 MW to 5 MW platforms, the methodology estimates lifetime consumption of critical components, updates failure rates and evaluates the effect of these operational strategies on future operation and maintenance costs.
The study includes the development or adaptation of the wind turbine aeroelastic model, together with an analysis of the wind and operating conditions of the wind farm. Based on the available operational data, start-up, shutdown, and restart events are identified and characterized. These events are simulated to calculate fatigue loads and assess their contribution to the lifetime consumption of the components under analysis.
Customer benefits
The analysis enables our clients to better understand how start-ups and shutdowns affect the service life of their wind turbines and future operation and maintenance costs, providing the following benefits:
- Quantification of the impact of start-stop events.
- Updated lifetime consumption and failure rate assessments.
- Identification of particularly sensitive components.
- Support for optimizing operation and restart strategies.
- Improved visibility of the economic impact associated with operational restrictions.
