Problem statement

In recent years, global climate change has forced world governments to rethink the way
they generate energy of all kinds by means other than those commonly used, such as
burning fossil fuels.

Humanity depends to a great extent on electric energy. In Mexico, actions have been
taken to obtain electric energy by clean means, such as the aforementioned wind
farms.However, these are made up of large-scale wind turbines which were acquired
abroad and installed by these companies and are administered by the federal government.

Studies have been carried out on aerodynamic profiles that take advantage of wind forces
to apply them in wind turbines of medium and high speeds, however, not all the states of
the republic have the wind speeds required for these profiles.

https://repository.uaeh.edu.mx/bitstream/bitstream/handle/123456789/15870/AT18379.pdf?
sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Wind energy is a type of renewable energy whose source is wind power. The typical way
to harness this energy is through the use of wind turbines or wind turbines. But how do
you get from wind to electricity? The direct predecessor of today's wind turbines are the
old windmills, which are still used today to extract water or grind grain.

A wind turbine is an electric generator driven by a turbine driven by the wind (wind
turbine).

In addition to these first-order parameters, there are others that also have an important
impact on life consumption such as machine misalignment, vertical wind component,
shear, etc. The wind farm operation strategies must minimize the impact of all these
external parameters to preserve the life of the components if the objective is to extend
the life of the asset.
how much life does a given wind turbine have left? Operating strategies (e.g., the
application of shutdowns by sector), the quality of corrective and preventive maintenance,
the incidence of transients outside normal operation (e.g., number of emergency
shutdowns) and even availability all have a crucial impact on the remaining life of the
machines," explains José Javier Ripa. If the remaining life is to be predicted with any
degree of reliability, it is necessary to analyze all these factors together."

Depending, therefore, on the real life that the machine has endured, its design life will be
reached under certain conditions of life consumption and its corresponding decrease in
the safety margin before the collapse of its components. At this point, there are three
possible alternatives: dismantle the installation, repower the wind farm or extend the
useful life of the wind turbines.

Opting for life extension could result in a decrease in LCOE (cost of energy). But without
regulation, this possibility could generate, or is already generating, other types of
problems. For example, the business plans (and amortization periods) of some facilities
have been updated in an accounting manner with life periods longer than 20 years based
on technical reports from the manufacturer (OEM) or independent consultants not
validated by the administrations. On the other hand, the massive dismantling of wind
farms more than 20 years old could lead to a scenario of rapid loss of wind power
production, with an impact on the price of the electricity market and on Spain's chances of
meeting its energy commitments by 2020.

https://www.energias-renovables.com/eolica/que-20-anos-no-es-nadaa--20160614

how long does a wind turbine live? "Whatever the manufacturer wants,"José Javier Ripa,
DEWI-UL's director for Spain and Latin America, immediately points out(see interview).
"Service life is one of the inputs with which a wind turbine is designed. Normally we talk
about 20 years, but they can be designed to live 30 years or more without problems. It is
basically a matter of component sizing against extreme loads and fatigue. And therefore
costs".
Once designed for a certain service life, wind turbines are mostly certified according to
IEC-61400-1, GL, or other standards. The certification includes the review of the design,
the production process and the verification against a real model (prototype tests). The
objective is to endorse that the machine model is designed to withstand 20 years, or
however many, in operation under a characteristic wind envelope, which is categorized
into classes depending on the average and extreme wind speed; and subclasses
depending on the turbulence intensity (TI). This IT parameter is particularly influential as it
causes dynamic load cycles (fatigue) that generate accumulated damage in components
and thus reduce their remaining life. The effective TI is a sum of the environmental TI
(mainly dependent on orography), and the TI of the wind farm (caused by the wakes of
neighboring wind turbines). If the actual wind at the site exceeds the class and/or subclass
limits for speed and turbulence, the machine will be operating below the safety margins.

https://www.energias-renovables.com/eolica/que-20-anos-no-es-nadaa--20160614

By 2030, half of the 146,000 megawatts of wind power installed in Europe today will be
more than 20 years old. And among the oldest are many wind farms in Denmark, Germany
and Spain, which will be the first to have to consider extending their service life. But how
is it done? is it always profitable? is it the best option? We have talked to some of the
leading experts in the field.

On September 19 and 20, the 2nd International Conference on Wind Farm Life Extension,
organized by the SpanishWind Energy Association(AEE), was held in Madrid. "The fact
that, in many cases, the assets are in good operating conditions - together with the lack of
a clear and homogeneous regulation on repowering in the continent - is leading the sector
towards this natural trend: life extension," AEE points out.

Experts from different countries debated on the subject to try to shed light on a topic that
mixes technological aspects with economic management, and that fully affects the
operation and maintenance (O&M) of wind farms. The ultimate goal is to increase their
profitability, because extending the useful life of wind turbines means extending their
economic life. But how is it done? What strategies can be followed? what is the remaining
life of a wind farm? how will it affect O&M? how much will it cost? What experiences can
be brought to the table now?

In Spain there are currently 20,292 wind turbines installed in 1,080 wind farms, with a
total capacity of more than 23,000 MW. By 2020, almost half of these wind turbines will
be 15 years old or older, and more than 2,300 MW will be over 20 years old.

After years of absolute standstill, the wind sector is looking to the immediate future with
more optimism following the three auctions held in 2016 and during this year, which have
resulted in the award of 4,607 MW of new capacity. "Wind power is destined to become
the leading source of energy in Spain," said AEE's president, Rocío Sicre, at the opening of
the conference. But it didn't happen overnight.

The life extension of wind farms also implies new contractual agreements, new
operational models. "It's an opportunity," says Juan Tesón, head of Renewables O&M for
Enel Green Power in Iberia and Latin America. "We have set out to extend the service life
of wind turbines to 30 years. And there are companies that talk about reaching 40. In any
case, what we do will depend on the regulatory framework."

For Tesón, "repowering would be an option if there were incentives to do so. But we
believe that life extension plus revamping is the best solution, as long as energy
availability, production, remains at acceptable levels". One of the problems he points out
is the lack of some components, which is already beginning to be noticed in older wind
turbines.

What is the economic impact for wind farm operators if they have to deal with a major
repair every seven years? "If we assume that the useful life of a wind turbine is 30 years
and the shaft and gearbox have to be completely renewed every seven years, that means
four renewals during the entire useful life cycle of the turbine," says Fierro. "With an
improved bearing solution, operators could cut this figure in half."
For example, if a shaft and gearbox repair costs $300,000 (including crane costs), the total
expenditure would reach $1.2 million over the life cycle of the machine. If these
replacements can be reduced by half, operators could save up to $600,000 per wind
turbine. For a 100-turbine wind farm, maintenance savings can be nearly $60 million over
30 years.

General Objective:

Verifying a maintenance strategy that best suits this type of turbines is the so-
called condition-based maintenance (CBM), i.e., maintenance based on the
diagnosis of the wind turbine to intervene only if the equipment requires it.
This optimizes the time spent on maintenance, additional maintenance costs,
equipment availability and, in turn, the lifetime of the wind turbine.

Specific objective
"

Life Time Extension (LTE) strategies for wind farms can be based on different
strategies, which from lowest to highest would ensure an extension in the operating time
of the wind farms:

Passive LTE: the wind farm continues to operate without substantial modifications to the
machines or operating conditions, basically standard component replacements and
preventive maintenance are performed.

Operational LTE: changes in park operation strategies are introduced. The most common
are:
- Reduction in the number of equivalent hours, normally seeking to produce at times of
higher remuneration according to the pool.
- Stopping strategies by direction, wind speed or time zone in order to limit exposure to
the most turbulent winds, which are the most life-consuming.
- Nominal power reduction would be a less frequent strategy, simple to implement (only
for pitch-controlled machines) but less efficient.

- Structural LTE: this would be the most ambitious version and would include changes (not
replacement) and/or reinforcement of critical components as well as modifications in
machine and fleet control, etc. There are already specific life extension packages on the
market, such as the one offered by Gamesa for its G47 fleet.

https://www.energias-renovables.com/eolica/que-20-anos-no-es-nadaa--20160614

"INSPECTION TECHNIQUES
The techniques used during the inspections carried out to determine the condition of the
wind turbine are grouped into three main categories:
The analysis of data obtained on-line.
These are data obtained from the wind turbine through the instrumentation mounted on
line and transmitted through various forms of communication to the centers that
centralize all the information obtained in the various wind turbines. In these centers are
the technicians who evaluate which is the compartment of the different wind turbines. In
recent years, online vibration measurement has been introduced as a novel technique
with very favorable results. Previously this technique was limited by the low rotor speed
(between 10 and 20 rpm). for the most common wind turbines), which were 200 r.p.m. off
the ground. traditionally associated with this diagnostic technique. The development of
new sensors and new software capable of measuring and interpreting low-speed
vibrations are behind the development of this online wind turbine monitoring technique.
The implementation of online oil analysis is also under development, although for the
moment it should be considered as within the experimental field and only related to some
of the analytical parameters, without considering complete analysis of the lubricating fluid
for the time being.

"The application of predictive techniques

The name 'predictive techniques' is increasingly being questioned, with offline

measurements being preferred to offline measurements. These techniques, which relate
observations or measurements of certain physical variables to the degradation of a given
component, are basically the following: optical inspection of blades, boroscopic inspection
of the gearbox, oil analysis of the gearbox and of the hydraulic group that moves the blade
orientation systems, thermography and ultrasound analysis. The latter two techniques are
more difficult to implement in wind turbines, as they require the wind turbine to be in
operation. This fact makes data collection more difficult since it means that the technician
has to be in the wind turbine itself with it running to collect data, which is not advisable
for safety reasons. The development of thermography or ultrasound analysis will have to
be adapted in the future as online measurement techniques to overcome the
disadvantage of on-site data collection.

"Periodic on-site inspections

This group of techniques involves the detailed sensory inspection of the different
components of the wind turbine: blades, hub, main shaft, gearbox, instrumentation and
its lubrication system, generator, tower, elevator, wiring, electrical systems, etc. These
inspections have two main frequencies: the detailed inspection tasks that are carried out
quarterly (which are currently becoming semi-annual inspections, something that is not
recommended by IRIM) and the inspection tasks that are carried out annually.

"ORGANIZATIONAL CHART
The condition-based maintenance strategy requires some organizational chart changes
over traditional organizational charts. These traditional organizational charts divided the
maintenance department into mechanical, electrical and instrumentation sub-
departments, a division that does not fit in condition-based maintenance and, in general,
in wind turbine maintenance. It is much more favorable to have specialized workers for
the analysis of wind turbine data in a central department, to have its own specialized sub-
department to carry out the various predictive techniques and to have technicians to carry
out periodic on-site inspections.

http://renovetec.com/irim/267-EL-MANTENIMIENTO-DE-AEROGENERADORES