Wind Energy Facility Reliability and Maintenance

The global wind power industry involves operations in highly stochastic environments and thus faces challenges in enhancing reliability and reducing maintenance costs. Earlier studies related to wind energy facility reliability and maintenance focused more on qualitative aspects, discussing the unique influencing factors in wind power operations and their effects on the system performance. With operational experience accumulated for more than a decade, the most recent focus has been shifted to achieve a more structured approach using analytical and/or simulation methods. In this chapter, we provide a comprehensive account of the existing research regarding wind energy facility reliability and maintenance. We group the relevant studies into three major categories. The first category addresses the degradation and failure pattern of wind turbines, aiming at optimizing the operations and maintenance. The second and third categories discuss the reliability issues in a broader sense, focusing on reliability assessment at the wind farm level and at the overall power system level, respectively.