United Kingdom-London: Research and development services and related consultancy services

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The Carbon Trust is working on a major offshore wind technology accelerator initiative focussed on reducing the cost of energy (GBP/MWh) from offshore wind by more than 10 %. This initiative, the Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA), is funding large-scale research, development and demonstration (RD&D) projects to unlock technological barriers to advance the industry, and thereby accelerate its development so that significant carbon emissions reductions are achieved. Projects have been selected based on their potential impact on the cost of offshore wind farms and on their ability to deliver operational improvements in the short to medium term. The OWA has been structured as a funding collaboration between the Carbon Trust and a number of international energy companies active in offshore wind farm development.
This invitation to tender relates to a ‘Component Monitoring Systems’ project.
A significant amount of failures in offshore wind farms has been observed in electrical components (e.g. air coil reactor overheating, IGBT failures etc.). Some of these are associated with limited technical downtime and effort to repair while others require the use of lifting equipment and specialised vessels with longer downtimes. In all cases there is uncertainty due to the weather window and as a consequence the impact of sudden failures could be significant. This fact is currently reflected in high O&M costs, accounting roughly for 25 % of the overall life-cycle cost (ECN, 2014). The OWA partners would like to understand the role condition monitoring systems could play in reducing these risks and their associated costs by performing an accurate diagnosis of the system health and possibly promoting preventive and properly planned maintenance. This project aims to address this problem by identifying condition monitoring techniques/systems applicable to electrical components in operation (e.g. transformers, converters etc.). In terms of component type in this project both HVAC and HVDC components are included. The analysis is not including the wind turbine generator or other wind turbine components e.g. pitch system. However, it is expected that in case the contractor identifies findings applicable to components that are of similar nature between offshore substations and offshore wind turbines then the analysis will be extended to identify the cost benefit of expanding the use of those systems to wind turbines.
The work performed in this project is aimed to reduce the operating cost of offshore wind farms. Offshore wind is a sector where cost reduction is a must and as a consequence the adoption of any system should have a clear cost reduction potential on OPEX considering the complete overview of offshore wind finances.
The main objective of this project to explore how condition monitoring can be used to reduce risks/costs associated with electrical component operation.
This can be broken down into the following detailed objectives:
1. Define key failures and risks associated with electrical component operation;
2. Understand the condition monitoring solutions which exist (or could be developed) to address these risks (in offshore wind and other industries);
3. Determine key benefits and qualitatively assess the financial upside of various condition monitoring solutions under common design assumptions; and,
4. Identify gaps and challenges that could form the subject of a competition.
In order to achieve tangible results the contractor is required to perform a wide range industry engagement.

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United Kingdom

73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

76500000 - Onshore and offshore services

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