Assessment for continued operation
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Assessment and inspection for the continued operation of wind turbines in accordance with the DIBt guideline and the BPW principles of the German Wind Energy Association (BWE).
The assessment and inspection for continued operation is based on the requirements of the Guideline for Wind Turbines (DIBt 2012 / Chapter 17 – Continued Operation of Wind Turbines) as well as the principles for conducting an assessment and inspection for the continued operation of onshore WTGs (BPW) (German Wind Energy Association).
The objective of the BPW is to ensure the safe continued operation of the WTG under current technical regulations.
Within the specified scopes, a technical assessment must be made as to whether the WTG as a complete system still meets the aspects of structural safety and structural durability under current and future operational influences, and/or whether inspections or specific measures must be initiated to ensure the safe continued operation of the WTG.
The objective of the BPW is to quantitatively determine a remaining useful life, if necessary with conditions, based on the available documentation and the actual condition of the complete system. In the procedure described below, the BPW makes assessments as to whether
- a remaining useful life of the complete system can be determined based on the available documentation (analytical part),
- the inspection of the technical condition of the complete system allows for continued operation (practical part).
The focus of these inspections is to verify the results of the calculations and assessments against the actual conditions of the WTG (weak point analysis). It thereby also complements the test results of the analytical part and enables the verification of the input parameters.
The site-specific load calculation forms the core of the analytical part for continued operation. In addition to the site conditions, the operational history and system characteristics of the WTG are also mapped. The available potential for continued operation is determined by comparison with the design-specific design loads and can be specified through extended verifications.
Based on a model consideration, the result of the analytical verification provides an assessment of the determined remaining useful life of turbine components. These then apply within the framework of the disclosed site conditions, the known operational history of the WTG, and the knowledge of the current turbine condition.
