Wind turbine availability: Should it be time or energy based? – A case study in Ireland

Abstract: This paper describes a method for quantifying wind farm availability using two different approaches and comparing the results. Wind turbine suppliers regularly guarantee turbine availability in terms of time. A typical value of 97% is generally taken as the industry standard. This paper shows that this guarantee can potentially under-compensate the wind farm operator for losses sustained depending on when the period of non-availability occurs. Here we present an alternative method to quantify wind farm availability based on energy, which relates the energy losses in an Irish wind farm in 2007 to periods of turbine non-availability. It is shown in this analysis completed at this operational wind farm that while the technical non-availability as a percentage of time is 3%, the percentage of energy lost during downtimes is actually 11%. Based on the financial analysis above, the financial losses are significant. To answer the question should wind turbine availability be time or energy based, this paper shows that it can be advantageous for wind turbine owners to have energy-based calculations as long as the developers have sufficient monitoring of not only wind speed but also SCADA data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]