Reliability & Availability of Wind Turbine Electrical & Electronic Components

Peter Tavner, Professor of New & Renewable Energy Energy Group Head of School of Engineering, Durham University One has to consider causes rather than symptoms of undesirable events and One avoid uncritical attitudes. Prof Dr Alessandro Birolini

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Availability, Availability Operator

Operability 100% MTBF Logistic Delay time MTTR Time

MTTF 0% %

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Availability, Availability Manufacturer

Operability 100% MTBF

MTTF 0% % MTTR Time

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Availability, Availability Manufacturer?

Operability 100% MTBF Op key turned off MTTR Time

MTTF 0% %

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Availability & Reliability

Mean Time To Failure, MTTF Mean Time to Repair, or downtime MTTR Mean Time Between Failures, MTTF MTBF MTBFMTTF+MTTR=1/ +1/ MTBF=MTTF+MTTR+Logistic MTBF=MTTF+MTTR+Logistic Delay Time Failure rate, = 1/MTBF Repair t R i rate, =1/MTTR 1/MTTR Manufacturers Availability, A=(MTBFA=(MTBF-MTTR)/MTBF=1(/) Operators or Technical Availability, A=MTTF/MTBF < 1(/) Typical UK values Operators Availability 97%, Manufacturers Availability 98%
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Capacity Factor
Energy generated in a year= C x Turbine rating x 8760 C Capacity Factor, C i F 8760 number of hours in a year Therefore: C Energy C=Energy generated in a year/ Turbine rating x 8760 C incorporates the Availability A and therefore Availability, A, the MTBF, 1/
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Cost of Energy, COE

COE, /kWh= O&M+ {[(ICC*FCR) + LRC]/AEPnet} {( ) LRC]/AEPnet} O&M=Cost of Operations & Maintenance, O&M=Cost ICC=Initial Capital Cost, ICC=Initial FCR=Fixed Charge Rate, interest, % FCR=Fixed LCR=Levelised Cost of Replacement, replacing unavailable LCR= generation, ti AEP=Annualised Energy Production, kWh AEP=Annualised COE , /kWh = O&M(, 1/) + {[(ICC*FCR) + LRC(, 1/)]/AEPnet(A(, 1/)} ]/AEPnet(A(

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Cost of Energy, COE gy,

Reduce failure rate, , Reliability MTBF, 1/, and Availability, Availability A, improve Increase repair rate, , p , Downtime MTTF, 1/ reduces, and Availability, improve A il bili A, i Therefore COE, reduces COE,
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Root Causes & Failure Modes F il M d

Failure Mode (Symptom)
Main Shaft Failure

Why? Root Cause Analysis A l i

Fracture Deformation

How? H ? Condition Monitoring & Diagnosis

High Cycle Fatigue Corrosion Low Cycle Fatigue or Overload Misalignment

Root Causes

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The Bathtub Curve

Failure Intensity,

Total number of failures Turbine Population a = Operating Period (years)

Most turbines lie here

( t ) = e
Early Life ( < 1) Useful Life ( = 1) Wear-out Period ( > 1)
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Time, Time t

Trend in Turbine Failure Rates with time ith ti

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Reliability & Size, EU

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Wind Turbine Subassemblies

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Wind Turbine Configurations

31st

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Reliability & Subassemblies , EU

Industrial Reliability figures

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Reliability & Downtime & Subassemblies, Subassemblies EU

ISET Pivot Diagram Failure Rate and Downtime from 2 Large Surveys of European Wind Turbines
Electrical System Electrical Control Other Hydraulic System Yaw System Rotor Hub Mechanical Brake Rotor Blades R t Bl d Gearbox Generator Drive Train
LWK F il Failure R t approx 6000 T bi Y Rate, Turbine Years WMEP Failure Rate, approx 7800 Turbine Years LWK Downtime, approx 6000 Turbine Years WMEP Downtime, approx 7800 Turbine Years

Annual failure frequency

0.75

0.5

0.25

10

12

14

Downtime per failure (days) p ( y ) 16 of 64

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Reliability & Time, LWK y ,

LWK, E66, converter

1.0

failure intensity [failures / yea ar]

demonstrated reliability
0.4

0.2

industrial range

0.0

20

40

60

80

100
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total test time [turbines * year]

actual elapsed time: 9 years

0.6

0.8

Reliability & Time, LWK Generators G t

LWK, E40, generator
LWK, E66, generator
actual elapsed time: 11 years

1.0

1.0

failure intensity [failures / ye e ear]

failur intensity [failures / ye re ear]

0.4

0.2

0.2 2

0.4

0.0

industrial range

0.0

industrial range

100

200

300

400

500

20

40

60

total test time [turbines * year]

LWK, V27/225, generator

total test time [turbines * year]

LWK, V39/500, generator

1.0

1.0

actual elapsed time: 7 years

0.8 8

0.6

0.6

0.8 8

80

actual el lapsed time: 12 years

failure intensity [fa ailures / year]

failure intensity [fa ailures / year]

0.4

0.2

0.2

0.4

0 0.0

0.0

industrial range

industrial range

100

200

300

400

100

200

300

400

500

total test time [turbines * year]

total test time [turbines * year]

Figure 4.4: Variation between the failure rates of generator subassemblies, in the LWK population of German WTs, using the PLP model. The upper two are low speed direct drive generators while the lower two are high speed indirect drive i di t d i generators. t

actual elapsed time: 11 years e

0.8

0 0.6

0 0.6

0.8

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Reliability & Time, LWK Gearboxes G b

LWK, TW600, gearbox

LWK, V39/500, gearbox

actual elapsed time: 12 years

1.0

1.0

failure int tensity [failures / year r]

failure int tensity [failures / year r]

0.4

0.2

industrial value

0.2

0.4

industrial value

0.0

100

200

300

0.0

100

200

300

400

500

total test time [turbines * year]

LWK, N52/N54, gearbox

total test time [turbines * year]

LWK, Micon M530, gearbox

1.0

1.0

fa ailure intensity [failures / year] s

fa ailure intensity [failures / year] s

0.4

0.2

industrial value

0.2

0.4

industrial value

0.0

20

40

60

80

100

0.0

50

100

150

200

total test time [turbines * year]

total test time [turbines * year]

Figure 4.5: Variation between the failure rates of gearbox subassemblies, using the PLP model, in the LWK population of German WTs model WTs.

actual elapsed time: 12 years

actual elapsed time: 7 years d

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.8

250

actual elapsed time: 11 years

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.8

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Reliability & Time, LWK Electronics El t i

LWK, E40, electronics

LWK, E66, electronics

actual elapsed time: 11 years :

1.0

1.0

failu intensity [failures / year] ure y

failur intensity [failures / ye re ear]

0.4

0 0.2

industrial range

0.2

0.4

0.0

industrial range

100

200

300

400

500

0.0

total test time [turbines * year]

20

40

60

total test time [turbines * year]

LWK, LWK TW 1.5s, electronics 1 5s

1.0

failure intensity [failures / year] y

0.2

0.4

industrial range

0.0

10

20

30

40

act tual elapsed time: 5 years

0.6

0.8

50

total test time [turbines * year]

Figure 4.6: Variation between the failure rates of electronics subassemblies, or converter, using the PLP model, in the LWK population of German WTs. The upper two are low speed direct drive generators with fully rated converters while the lower two are high speed indirect drive g g p generators with p partially rated converters. y

actual elapsed time: 7 years

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.8 8

80

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Reliability of Electronics y

Failure root cause distribution for power electronics from E Wolfgang, 2007
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Variable Load of Wind Power Line Sid Inverter Li Side I t

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Variable Load of Wind Power Generator Side I G t Sid Inverter t

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Conclusions
Definitions of Availability are open to interpretation Unreliability > 1 failure/turbine/year is common Unreliability increases with turbine size Such unreliability will be unacceptable offshore Offshore we need unreliability < 0.5 failure/turbine/year Unreliability concentrated mainly in the Drive Train including electrics Some unreliable subassemblies are surprising: For example gearboxes are not unreliable But gearbox failures cause large downtime and costs But electrical parts are unreliable Cause less downtime but significant costs, their downtime will increase offshore For electrical parts the root causes from these surveys are not clear: Components Systems Controls But the highly variable loading from the turbine is clearly a factor Pre-testing is essential to eliminate early life failures Pre24 of 23

Thank you
P. J. Tavner, C. Edwards, A. Brinkman, and F. Spinato. Inuence of wind speed on wind turbine reliability. Wi d Engineering, 30(1) 2006. d i d t bi li bilit Wind E i i 30(1), 2006 P. J. Tavner, J. P.Xiang, and F. Spinato. Reliability analysis for wind turbines. Wind Energy, 10(1), 2007. F. Spinato, P. J. Tavner, and G.J.W van Bussel. Reliability-growth analysis of wind turbines from field data. P l i f i d t bi f fi ld d t Proceedings of AR2TS di f conference, Loughborough, 2007. Tavner, P J, van Bussel, G J W, Spinato, F, Machine and converter reliabilities in WTs. Proceedings of IEE PEMD Conference, Dublin, April 2006. 2006 Hansen, A D., Hansen, L H. ,Wind turbine concept market penetration over 10 years (19952004), Wind Energy, 2007; 10:8197 Ribrant J., Bertling L.M.: Survey of failures in wind power systems with focus on S di h wind power plants during 1997 2005 IEEE T f Swedish i d l t d i 19972005, Trans. Energy Conversion, 2007, EC22 (1), pp. 167173 Wolfgang, E. Examples for failures in power electronics systems, in EPE Tutorial Reliability of Power Electronic Systems, April 2007. B k d hl P Skii an I lli b P Beckendahl, P, Skiip, Intelligenb Power M d l f wind turbine Module for i d bi inverters, EPE Wind Chapter Mtg, Stockholm, May 2009

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