scholarly journals A Decision-Making Tool for Planning O&M Activities of Offshore Wind Farms Using Simulated Actual Decision Drivers

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pietro D. Tomaselli ◽  
Martin Dixen ◽  
Rodolfo Bolaños Sanchez ◽  
Jacob Tornfeldt Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Computational Time ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Efficient Planning ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
Actual Decision

Safe and cost-efficient planning Operation&Maintenance (O&M) activities for the turbines of Offshore Wind Farms is crucial for the offshore wind industry. The execution of the planned tasks depends on the workability at sea. Workability assessments aim to find time periods, called weather windows, during which the personnel can execute the job at hand safely. Traditionally, weather windows analyses are based on thresholds applied on relevant metocean conditions in the area of interest, commonly wave height, wave period and wind speed. In this way, tasks are planned in windows during which the forecast metocean conditions do not exceed the defined thresholds. This paper presents a numerical tool that provides weather windows based on more direct measures of workability, that is seasickness on board during the trip to the turbines and bow motions, which endanger crew transfers from vessel to turbine. When assessing weather windows, such parameters better describe the actual decision drivers in a real operational setting than mere metocean thresholds, which are, in practical cases, discretionally judged by the O&M operator upon experience. Therefore, the reliability of workability predictions can increase, leading to financial gains for the wind industry and safer environment for O&M operators. The paper shows an application of the tool, where a full O&M scenario is simulated. The scenario comprises the transit from the port to the offshore site, the work carried out on the turbine and the transit back to the port. In particular, the application highlights the key capability of the tool of calculating vessel motions, which are elaborated to produce weather windows. With its low computational time-demand, the tool aims to support the decision-making processes that produce short- and long-term O&M plans.

Potential Geo-Hazards to Floating Offshore Wind Farms in the US Pacific

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tayebeh Tajalli Bakhsh ◽  
Kent Simpson ◽  
Tony LaPierre ◽  
Mahmud Monim ◽  
Jason Dahl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Suitability Analysis ◽  
Ocean Energy ◽  
Ground Acceleration ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Suitability Index ◽  
The Us ◽  
Suitability Maps

Abstract To help the selection of suitable sites for development of offshore wind projects in the US on the coasts of California, Oregon and Hawaii, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) funded this study to assess the potential geo-hazards in this region. First, a comprehensive review of potential threats to the sites based on historic events is provided. The geospatial indexing for the call areas are then calculated based on weights associated with inputs, consisting of: sea floor slope, soil type, and seismicity (peak ground acceleration data of 500 year event). Finally, suitability indices are provided for each region. To perform a suitability analysis using geospatial indexing, all input factors are first standardized into a common scale, then a weighted overlay function is applied. Each of the criteria in the analysis is multiplied by the weights defined based on their importance in the region and then added together and suitability maps for each lease block are developed. Comprehensive maps of geohazards and geological data, suitability index maps and suitability rankings for the area of interest are being generated and presented online. This paper focuses on the floating windfarm call areas offshore California, including Humboldt, Morro Bay and Diablo Canyon, and presents the new approach for evaluating, integrating and indexing geospatial geohazard data for offshore windfarms, and the state-of-the-art suitability analysis approach. This new method can be also beneficial in the other parts of the world (e.g. East Asia), and similar concept can be implemented to evaluate the suitability of sites, based on the hazards in the area of interest.

Availability centred maintenance for offshore wind farms

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lijuan Dai ◽  
Marvin Rausand ◽  
Ingrid Bouwer Utne
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Operating Experience ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Engineering System ◽  
Maintenance Planning ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Information

Purpose – Maintenance planning is a complicated decision-making process that involves the major stakeholders and the main life-cycle phases of an engineering system. The purpose of this paper is to propose an availability-centred maintenance planning approach for offshore wind farms, with special focus on the early system design phase. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed approach is based on a stepwise procedure that integrates logistics consideration into reliability-centred maintenance. For each step, the essential methods for systematic analysis and documentation are introduced. Findings – Practical information from current offshore wind farms and lessons learned from relevant industries are included to exemplify and justify the implementation of the proposed approach. In a general way, the approach shows that valuable input can be provided to decision making about maintainability and maintenance planning. Furthermore, the approach facilitates the initial maintenance plan to be adjusted and improved upon as additional operating experience becomes available. Research limitations/implications – Offshore wind energy is still an industry in its infancy with an attendant high degree of confidentiality. There is scarcely any detailed practical information available for the production of a case study on this topic. However, the current paper’s theoretical basis may be applied to identify current and future knowledge gaps, for the development of more detailed guidelines as established in the further research. Originality/value – Maintenance planning of offshore wind farms is an area of current interest, although often the focus is on achieving cost reductions and not on the formal development of such a systematic approach as conceived in this paper.

Boundaries of Decision-Making Simulations in Operation and Maintenance of Offshore Wind Farms

2017 ◽  
pp. 123-134
Author(s):  
Dirk Bendlin ◽  
Gerrit Wolken-Möhlmann ◽  
Marcel Wiggert ◽  
Sean Parker ◽  
Jorge Marx Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Operation And Maintenance

scholarly journals A Decision-making Model for Corrective Maintenance of Offshore Wind Turbines Considering Uncertainties

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sathishkumar Nachimuthu ◽  
Ming J. Zuo ◽  
Yi Ding
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Corrective Maintenance ◽  
Offshore Wind Turbines ◽  
Critical Resource ◽  
Decision Making Model ◽  
High Degree

Maintenance optimization has received special attention among the wind energy research community over the past two decades. This is mainly because of the high degree of uncertainties involved in the execution of operation and maintenance (O&M) activities throughout the lifecycle of wind farms. The increasing complexity in offshore maintenance execution demands applied research and brings forth a need to develop problem-specific maintenance decision-making models. In this paper, a mathematical model is proposed to assist wind farm stakeholders in making critical resource- related decisions for corrective maintenance at offshore wind farms (OWFs), considering uncertainties in turbine failure information.

scholarly journals Use of Markov Decision Processes in the Evaluation of Corrective Maintenance Scheduling Policies for Offshore Wind Farms

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 2993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helene Seyr ◽  
Michael Muskulus
Keyword(s):  
Energy Production ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Corrective Maintenance ◽  
Current State ◽  
Markov Decision ◽  
Maintenance Policies ◽  
Cost Efficient

Optimization of the maintenance policies for offshore wind parks is an important step in lowering the costs of energy production from wind. The yield from wind energy production is expected to fall, which will increase the need to be cost efficient. In this article, the Markov decision process is presented and how it can be applied to evaluate different policies for corrective maintenance planning. In the case study, we show an alternative to the current state-of-the-art policy for corrective maintenance that will achieve a cost-reduction when energy production prices drop below the current levels. The presented method can be extended and applied to evaluate additional policies, with some examples provided.

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