A Preventive Maintenance Planning Approach for Wind Converters

Abstract

Power Electronic (PE) converters are the heart of modern wind turbine systems, and their failures can significantly reduce turbine energy production. On the other hand, preventive maintenance, e.g., replacement of the components after a certain age, is an effective way to limit the converter unreliability. With that, this paper proposes an approach to find the optimal replacement time of components by quantifying and minimizing the total costs. The proposed framework is demonstrated on a 2-MW wind turbine system, where the outcomes are compared with Monte Carlo simulation results. Several factors are considered in this maintenance planning approach. By performing a sensitivity analysis, among them, repair rate, random-chance failure rate, scale parameter of the wear-out failure distribution, and the average price of electricity are identified as the key factors.