Fleet management for maintenance of offshore wind farms: a simulation model

Abstract

During the lifetime of an offshore wind farm, the operation and maintenance (O&M) costs account for a large portion of the total expenses. This is mainly caused by the high cost of vessels. In order to increase the competitiveness of offshore wind compared to onshore wind and other renewable energy sources, it is essential to decrease the cost of power generation of offshore wind. In this context, the scope of this research is the optimization of fleet management decisions, often referred to as the fleet size and mix problem, for the maintenance of offshore wind farms. Therefore, the literature on available solution methods and existing models have been reviewed first. Based on a comparison of the existing models, a simulation model is developed and presented in this report. The developed methodology is illustrated with a case study example. The model is verified by comparing the expected and actual results of various verification experiments. Moreover, several sensitivity analyses are performed. In the last section of this report, recommendations for features that can be added to the model are given. The developed methodology can be used to optimize fleet management decisions for a given maintenance strategy and, in addition, the consequences of various decisions can be evaluated since the model predicts the O&M costs and wind farm power production.