Economic Evaluation of Maintenance Strategies for Wind Turbines: A Stochastic Analysis

We develop a stochastic model for assessing the life-cycle cost and availability of wind turbines resulting from different maintenance scenarios, with the objective to identify the most cost-effective maintenance strategy. Using field-data based reliability models, the wind turbine – in terms of reliability – is modeled as a serial connection of the most critical components. Both direct cost for spare parts, labor, and access to the turbine, as well as indirect cost from production losses are explicitly taken into account. The model is applied to the case of a Vestas V44–600kW wind turbine. Results of a Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) analysis of this wind turbine are used to select the most critical wind turbine components and to identify possible maintenance scenarios.