Operational metrics for an offshore wind farm & their relation to turbine access restrictions and position in the array

Abstract: This study explores operations & maintenance requirements for offshore wind turbines. It does so by calculating performance, reliability and maintenance metrics from an operational database provided by a large offshore wind farm. Distributions of number of repairs and repair times per turbine are shared, as well as number of visits. A focus is placed on the effect of tidal access restrictions and position in the array by comparing clusters of turbines within the wind farm. It was found that tidal access restrictions lead to an increase in mean time to repair of 16%, and 0.22% decrease in technical availability. Turbines in the first few rows with reference to the prominent wind direction experience more minor failures on average, while those constantly operating in the wake of others are characterised by more major failures, and therefore a higher mean time to repair.