On Optimal Maintenance Management for Wind Power Systems

Abstract: Sound maintenance strategies and planning are of crucial importance for wind power systems, and especially for offshore locations. In the last decades, an increased awareness of the impact of human living on the environment has emerged in the world. The importance of developing renewable energy is today highly recognized and energy policies have been adopted towards this development. Wind energy has been the strongest growing renewable source of energy this last decade. Wind power is now developing offshore where sites are available and benefits from strong and steady wind. However, the initial investments are larger than onshore, and operation and maintenance costs may be substantially higher due to transportation costs for maintenance and accessibility constrained by the weather.Operational costs can be significantly reduced by optimizing decisions for maintenance strategies and maintenance planning. This is especially important for offshore wind power systems to reduce the high economic risks related to the uncertainties on the accessibility and reliability of wind turbines.This thesis proposes decision models for cost efficient maintenance planning and maintenance strategies for wind power systems. One model is proposed on the maintenance planning of service maintenance activities. Two models investigate the benefits of condition based maintenance strategies for the drive train and for the blades of wind turbines, respectively. Moreover, a model is proposed to optimize the inspection interval for the blade. Maintenance strategies for small components are also presented with simple models for component redundancy and age replacement.The models are tested in case studies and sensitivity analyses are performed for parameters of interests. The results show that maintenance costs can be significantly reduced through optimizing the maintenance strategies and the maintenance planning.