60% of Turbines May Be Behind in Critical Maintenance
Frontier Pro Services of Banning, California conducted an informal survey of approximately 75 wind farm operators in the United States. Designed to assess the specific operation and maintenance service needs of wind energy operators, the survey reveals potentially serious threats to wind farms owing largely to the industry-wide shortage of qualified turbine technicians.
Many wind farm operations and maintenance teams are so resource constrained that they are barely able to keep up with the unscheduled maintenance repairs their wind turbines require to generate electricity. Even regular, scheduled preventative-maintenance like oil changes and gearbox lubrication (services that are often still under warranty) are falling behind as manufacturers face similar resource struggles related to the shortage of qualified technicians.
Gearbox failures account for the largest amount of downtime, maintenance, and loss of power production. These costly failures can total 15-20% of the price of the turbine itself, making wind turbine and gearbox maintenance a high priority. “Most gearbox failures are preventable,” explains Jack Wallace, an industry veteran who has been servicing wind turbines for more than 20 years, and lead technical advisor for Frontier Pro Services. “Most gearboxes fail as a direct result of improper lubrication and lack of routine maintenance. With so many turbines behind on inspections and regular service, there is real cause for concern here,” Mr. Wallace continued.
If oil is not properly monitored and replaced as needed, bearing and gear wear will lead to more serious and costly damage to the drive train. When a $1,500 bearing fails unnoticed, it can lead to production loss and revenue loss including an unscheduled replacement of a $100,000 dollar gearbox and a unscheduled crane cost of up to $70,000 to access the failed components. “Damage caused by worn out or compromised gear oil can be irreparable. You can really see that it makes no sense to put off needed oil changes. The cost are too great,” states Mr. Wallace.
Simple fluid analysis can save the typical wind farm operator hundreds of thousands of dollars in repair work; provided, of course, you have the technicians available to perform the work. And that is no small challenge for the wind industry today.
The Frontier Pro Services Operations & Maintenance survey was conducted through a combination of informal phone interviews and in-person meetings with operations and maintenance technicians, wind farm operators, and wind farm owners during the first six months of 2008.
Frontier Pro clients include both wind farm operators with operations and maintenance needs as well as manufacturers who are behind in warranty-work and need sub-contracting help. Specializing in fluids, Frontier Pro will perform individual services such as oil and hydraulic changes for wind farm operators. As a full-service provider, the company also offers asset management services, along with comprehensive outsourcing where wind farms can turn over their complete operations and maintenance programs to Frontier Pro to manage. For more information about Frontier Pro Services go to www.frontierpro.com.
About Frontier Pro Services
Frontier Pro Services is a full-service provider of operations, maintenance and asset management services for wind farm owners and operators. With a mobile force of technicians, Frontier Pro is committed to providing reliable, quality, on-demand service to wind developments throughout the United States and Canada. Our team of experts draws on over two decades of experience maintaining wind farms and a breadth of knowledge extending from gearbox servicing to blade repair to remote monitoring and predictive maintenance to optimize the financial performance of all your wind farm assets. Frontier Pro is a Frontier Energy Group Company.
