New procedure for wind farm maintenance

Purpose - Conditions monitoring system (CMS) is a tool for describing the present condition of the components of a system. To achieve this objective, there is a need to develop an efficient fault prediction algorithm. This paper seeks to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach - The paper analyses four real wind farms with control charts of indices derived from UNE EN15341:2008 standard indicators, as the main CMS algorithm to define which index must be considered for improving wind farm maintenance and related costs. Findings - The findings show that climatic conditions are related to maintenance cost indices. Employing the statistical control process of various wind energy converter (WEC) indices proposed by wind farm operators is an adequate procedure to monitor and control wind farm performance. In particular, only the maintenance cost index and the hourly maintenance cost index presented a clear relationship with respect to weather conditions. Practical implications - Climatic conditions must form the basis for organising maintenance activities. Despite this, future maintenance models must be centred on indices obtained from experience, like the maintenance cost index and hourly maintenance cost index, and not solely in general indicators defined by standards. Originality/value - A practical case study of wind farm maintenance based in the new UNE EN15341:2008 standard and wind farm operators experience is shown, defining real indices to be employed in future maintenance procedures.