FEATURE SPONSOR
SPARES & REPAIRS
“Inadequate spare part stocks can lead to WT unavailability and loss of revenue if subsystems or items fail and cannot be replaced. When a spare part is needed but missing in stock, it has to be ordered from a supplier. Depending on the lead time of the spare part this causes operational downtime. On the other hand, handling and storage of spare parts can be a cost driver for any company operating and maintaining wind farms. Hence it is important to find a strategy which can balance these problems; optimising spare part investments and logistics.”
Furthermore, they state that critical spares should include:
“About 30 - 40 items of each WT model, that cost more than EUR 100 and are critical for the WT to function. That is, if there is a failure on one of these items the WT shuts down and becomes unavailable until it is repaired (and the faulty item is replaced by a spare part).”
REDUCING THE BREAKDOWN RATE In practice component failure is a mixture of random stochastic behaviour combined with the age effects of infant mortality and old age, characterised by the classic bathtub curve. Reducing the breakdown rate is a function of effective maintenance.
Traditionally, maintenance has either been corrective or preventive – reacting to failures and breakdowns, or servicing and changing parts at fixed intervals based on historical need or rates of failure. However, increasingly SCADA and condition monitoring data can be used to carry out predictive maintenance using dynamic information that indicates approaching failure – the so-called flickering light bulb effect.
REDUCING YIELD LOSS – THE CRITICAL FACTOR
However, the critical issue for reducing yield loss is less how often failures occur, but how long it takes to source the parts and labour to carry out an effective repair.
Developing a spare parts strategy that includes a third party parts supplier, such as Renewable Parts - effectively a bolt on parts department - is a cost effective way of getting the best, most professional, help at the lowest cost.
PROPRIETARY APP BASED INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Renewable Parts cannot only rapidly supply parts and consumables direct to site, nationally and internationally, but it also offers a proprietary app based inventory management system that allows onsite engineers to effectively control (and so find) stock.
Working with clients, critical parts lists are developed, and the stock shipped to site. Holding these critical parts has limited effect on P&L, particularly when compared to the devastating effect on net margin caused by prolonged down time through not holding critical spares in the correct location. In theory critical spares should be earmarked to a particular asset, but in practice, expensive parts can be shared across more than one turbine, if lead times are not such a problem.
SPARES STRATEGY
However it’s achieved, the key thing is to have a spares strategy that guarantees minimum down time at minimum cost.
Renewable Parts Ltd Click to view more info
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
109
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116