Problem
Vattenfall UK operates Swinford Wind Farm, 11 x V90-2MW in rural Leicestershire. The site is operated by a small, dedicated team and uses a mixture of independent service providers to service and troubleshoot the wind turbines. This means that convenience, quick turnaround and efficiency are key to any minor component repairs operation. Vattenfall has also made commitments towards sustainability targets taking greater responsibility over waste streams from wind turbine operation.
There are a variety of electrical and mechanical components that comprise the V90-2MW, thankfully Andy Claridge, O&M Manager, is very organised and throws very little away. He stores broken components on site in a quarantined area and keeps them in the hope that they can be repaired.
Objectives
- Reduce O&M costs
- Reduce vulnerability to long spares lead times
- Reuse materials and reduce waste
Windy Productions performed a visual assessment ofthe parts identified as repair candidates both on-site and remotely by photographs. We provisionally assessed the units for suitability of repair based on financial and technical viability. The parts were itemised, any damage was photographed and serial numbers were recorded. Based on the condition and category of the component, they were then sent to pre-vetted specialists based on their proximity, repair capabilities, equipment, pricing and testing abilities.Whilst in some instances we can offer a premium repair turnaround, there were no turbines down in this instance and timescales were not critical.
Solution
Assess
- Financial and technical viability
- Supply chain capabilities
Record
- Serial numbers
- Condition and damage observations
Quality
- ISO9001 approved RMA process
- 12 month warranty
Conclusions
As with all services there are opportunities for improvement. For example, in future when undertaking UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) repairs shipping the cabinet with spare batteries to test charging would allow this part to be repaired too. There is also an opportunity to better understand the net environmental benefits and metrics of repairs in terms of net carbon reduction and preservation of rare earth metals when considering logistics, extraction and manufacture and how to
measure this accurately without it taking too much time or cost.
Read the full case study here
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