Q: Could you briefly explain your involvement in onshore/offshore wind engineering?
Paul Barreto (PB): A few years ago, when offshore wind was still in its infancy, a number of the Round 1 wind farms began to experience issues with their foundations and I got involved in developing the remedial solutions.
Before that, I spent most of my professional life maintaining and extending operational lives of critical assets from aircraft, oil refinery systems and both conventional and nuclear power stations.
Q: How critical is effective operations and maintenance to the wind industry?
PB: Effective operations and maintenance is about achieving two things; availability and longevity
Foundations in particular, are a single point of failure that cannot be replaced, so they really are the critical components that need to be monitored, inspected and maintained to be available 24-7. As a wind farm approaches the end of its design life, any hopes of life extension depend on how wisely an operator has invested in proactive maintenance.
Without the foundations being in good nick, a windfarm quite literally hasn’t got a leg to stand on!
Q: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the onshore and offshore wind industry and how do you think it can be overcome?</strong">
PB: The next big challenge for the wind industry is to move away from the early model of reactive maintenance into a more balanced approach. There’s a lot of operating experience out there which can be brought to bear either at an individual operator level or at a joint industry level. Other industries e.g. nuclear, have joint industry databases recording component failures, so it’s possible to identify industry-wide trends when planning a preventive maintenance regime. So a challenge for wind operators would be to share asset information in some formal way where they can all benefit from lessons learned.
As the Round 1 offshore wind farms approach mid-life, life extension should be on the minds of operators. Given that the foundations are designed for fatigue, and this is heavily influenced by actual loads (as opposed to design loads) and by corrosion, operators should be identifying how much additional life is possible from an engineering standpoint, then working out the potential cash flows and then optimising their maintenance and repair activities based on the most economical solution. This would also inform decisions on whether re-powering, a much talked about option, is viable.
Q: What do you think is the most important thing to consider when dealing with/managing wind turbines as an asset?
PB: As with most other assets, it’s about understanding which of the components of a wind farm are the most critical. Then understanding the failure modes of those critical components.
Without waiting for failures to occur, it’s important to set up an inspection and maintenance regime that’s based on the expected utilisation of components.
Effective gathering of information from inspections then feeds back into the iterative evolution and update of future inspections and maintenance plans. The point is to optimise one’s asset management operations so as not to do too much or too little.
Importantly, information from inspections and maintenance must be fed back into the design of future foundations, for the industry to progress.
Q: What are you most looking forward to by attending and presenting at the Onshore and Offshore Wind Engineering 2018 conference?
PB: A few years ago, industry pundits thought we’d reached the limit of what monopile foundations could be used for, in terms of the depth of water, and the size of the turbine. Yet, here we are today, designing and installing monopiles in sizes previously deemed unviable.
Back then, there was much focus on how to get the cost of offshore wind power down to less than £120/MWh. Today, with the cost at ~£60/MWh and still dropping, managing the assets proactively offers significant scope for lowering the lifetime cost of offshore wind energy and for life extension and this is my main focus.
My role at this conference will be to shed some light on the effective maintenance of such a simple yet hugely important type of foundation, along with some of the things an operator should look out for.
Find out more
Paul will be speaking at our Onshore and Offshore Wind Engineering 2018 conference on 23–24 May 2018 in Manchester. Join him and other experts from E.ON Climate and Renewables, EDF Energy R&D UK Centre, Engie, London Array, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, SSE, Vestas Technology UK Ltd and more.
Key programme highlights:
- Hear from leaders in the wind energy market including E.ON Climate and Renewables, Engie, London Array, EDF Energy, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Vestas Technology UK Ltd
- Reduce risk in your operations and maintenance offshore by hearing case studies from successful projects carried out
- Improve turbine and blade design to reduce your LCOE with insight on the latest developments from pioneering wind organisations
- Hear from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Working Group to ensure you are up-to-date with changes to wind IEC standards
- Meet with key players in the wind industry including operations and maintenance, design and asset engineers from operators, OEMS and solution providers
For further information, visit Onshore and Offshore Wind Engineering 2018.