Technology Drivers in Windfarm Asset Management

As part of the UK’s programme for a sustainable, low-carbon future,increasing use will be made of wind energy. Presently the UK has 5 GW of wind energy, enough to power about 3 million homes1. This could rise to 40 GW in the coming decades, most of which would be in the form of offshorewind farms.The capital investment required for this UK offshore infrastructure could be as much as £120 billion. Operation and Maintenance (O&M) in the UK could be an industry worth as much as £2 billion per year by 2025. With the UK being a world-leader in offshore engineering, this presents huge potential for UK industry to establish itself, become leading exporter of services in this fieldand support 60,000 direct and indirect jobs in the UK by 20322.Present industry practice in the sector is good, though there is substantial opportunity to adopt best practice from other sectors, particularly the offshore oil and gas industry. There is also a strong focus on reducing early lifetime equipment failures: most of the existing infrastructure is still relatively new. The majority of O&M cost is in maintenance. At present much ofthis is corrective maintenance:fixing problems when they occur. In common with other sectors, there is a gradual move towards predictive maintenance: using information to predict and schedule maintenance, allowing more minor repairs to prevent major work.Predictive maintenance canbe divided intodata driven(sensing the state of equipment directly)or model driven (using models of equipment to predict how it will age in response to operating conditions and stresses). Improving maintenance therefore relies on better sensing and better models. The Industrial Digitisation Review set up in the UK IndustrialStrategy Green Paper, reported in 2017that a variety of new technologies havesignificant potential for offshore wind. These included big data and sensors; advanced digital simulation; the integration of wind through better forecasting; the use of robotics for operation and maintenance services3. However a skills shortage exists in many of these areas.