Maintenance optimization for a single wind turbine component under time-varying costs

In this paper, we introduce a new, single-component model for maintenance optimization under timevarying costs, specifically oriented at offshore wind turbine maintenance. We extend the standard age replacement policy (ARP), block replacement policy (BRP) and modified block replacement policy (MBRP) to address time-varying costs. We prove that an optimal maintenance policy under time-varying costs is a time-dependent ARP policy. Via a discretization of time, the optimal time-dependent ARP can be found using a linear programming formulation. We also present mixed integer linear programming models for parameter optimization of BRP and MBRP. We present a business case and apply our policies for maintenance planning of a wind turbine gearbox and show that we can achieve savings up-to 23%.(c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )

Automated summary

This paper introduces a new model for maintenance optimization in offshore wind turbine maintenance, which addresses time-varying costs. The authors extend the standard maintenance policies and prove that the optimal maintenance policy under time-varying costs is a time-dependent strategy. They also present linear programming models for parameter optimization. By applying these models, they demonstrate significant cost savings in maintenance planning.