A potentially game-changing European scheme that aims to slash the cost of offshore wind operations and maintenance (O&M) through real-time diagnosis and prediction of turbine component failures is moving into its next phase following feedback from pilot studies at a trio of wind farms.

Launched last year, the €16m ($18.6m) Romeo project, which is being steered by developer Iberdrola in collaboration with companies including EDF, Siemens Gamesa, Ramboll, IBM and Uptime Engineering, is devising a cloud-based analytics platform based on data collected from Germany’s Wikinger and the UK’s Teeside and East Anglia 1 developments.

“The Romeo project will contribute to the accomplishment of the European Union 2030 target of having at least 32% of energy coming from renewables, by developing technologies oriented to O&M costs reduction in offshore wind,” Iberdrola project coordinator César Yanes told Recharge

“Offshore wind has made a big effort to reduce costs, but there is still room for improvement in order to make it even more competitive and contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions. The great potential and impact of offshore wind makes it a ‘lighthouse’ sector for the EU.”

He said development of an “interoperable platform providing an advanced analytics ecosystem of failure diagnosis and prognosis models” would be fundamental to the industry shifting from a “calendar-based to condition-based” approach to maintenance strategies.

O&M currently accounts for around 25% of the total cost of an offshore wind farm’s life-time expenditure.

Testing and validation of the Romeo platform on the three pilot projects, Yanes added, would “ensure the replicability of the project in other offshore wind farms, thus contributing to LCOE [levellised cost of energy] reduction and boosting a sector strategy for the EU.

“This will help to generate qualified employment, improve sustainability, and help the EU to fulfil its commitments with the climate agreements.”

Development of the “backbone” of an O&M information management platform tailored for “processing and interrogation” of incoming data streams “from both human and machine interfaces” is now underway.

The Romeo (Reliable O&M decision tools and strategies for high LCOE reduction on offshore wind) project, which is underpinned by a European Commission Horizon2020 Programme grant, is slated for completion in 2022.

Wind

Offshore wind O&M cost-cutting flagship moves ahead