On the operation and maintenance practices of wind power asset: A status review and observations

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the operation and maintenance practices within wind power applications and to clarify practical needs as gaps between researchers and practitioners. Design/methodology/approach - The paper collects, categorizes, and analyzes the published literature of both researchers and practitioners systematically. Findings - The paper defines significant issues in operation and maintenance of wind energy related to: site and seasonal asset disturbances; stakeholders' requirements trade-off; dependability and asset deterioration challenges; diagnostic, prognostic and information and communication technologies (ICTs) applications; and maintenance optimization models. Within each category, the gaps and further research needs have been extracted with respect to both an academic and industrial perspective. Practical implications - The use of wind energy is growing rapidly and the associated practices related to maintenance and asset management are still lacking. Therefore, the literature review of operation and maintenance is a necessity to uncover the holistic issues and interrelationships of what has so far been published as detailed and fragmented topics to specific issues. Wind energy assets represent modern renewable energy assets which are affected by environmental disturbances, rapid technological development, rapid scaling-up processes, the stochastic and dynamic nature of operations and degradation, the integrity and interoperability of system-to-support. Originality/value - The paper provides a comprehensive review of research contributions and industrial development efforts. That will be useful to the life cycle stakeholders in both academia and industry in understanding the maintenance problem and solution space within the wind energy context.