Efforts to lower the cost of offshore wind energy have taken a step forward with the SPARTA (System Performance, Availability and Reliability Trend Analysis) project, which will create a database for sharing anonymised offshore wind farm performance and maintenance data.
The project was launched today by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, The Crown Estate, and offshore wind farm owner/operators. It is a major collaboration programme aimed at improving wind turbine operational performance by increasing safety, reliability and availability, thereby cutting the cost of electricity generated from offshore wind.
Owner/operator participants will be provided with robust and reliable benchmarked data for the first time, helping to identify operational improvements and cost reduction opportunities at both company and sector-wide levels.
ORE Catapult will fund and manage the SPARTA system in close collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Centre (NAREC). A pilot project will run until March 2015 after which a full-scale implementation of the reporting system is planned.
Initially, SPARTA will be developed for UK-based projects, but the setup is fully flexible and allows for the integration of international projects.
ORE Catapult and the Crown Estate have committed to initial development costs in excess of £850,000.
Owner/operators Centrica, RWE, SSE, Statkraft and Statoil have already committed to support the project by actively participating in a steering group to ensure that the key output – monthly reporting – provides valuable data which will inform future operational and maintenance decisions.
Press release, January 29, 2014