Review of offshore wind turbine failures and fault prognostic methods

Abstract

Wind electricity is a highly promoted energy source all around the world. The number of offshore wind farms, increases gradually because of the high capability of power generation. However, the cost of manufacturing, logistics, installation, grid control and maintenance of offshore wind turbine is high. According to the Condition Monitoring of Offshore Wind Turbine (CONMOW) report of Energy Research Centre in the Netherlands, the investment costs for future offshore wind farms built of larger units are expected to be 1.4 to 2.0 k€/kW. The Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs 30 to 50 €/kW per year. To enhance a cost effective maintenance strategy and higher quality design, Prognostics and System Health Management (PHM) is applied. In this paper, major failures of wind turbine will be discussed and possible prognostic methods for the failures will be introduced.