This article and survey come from New Energy Update.
Onshore wind participants predict more revenue-sharing, digitalization and multi-project contracts in the operations and maintenance sector while service providers plan to expand spare parts capabilities, a new survey by New Energy Update shows.
Ageing wind fleets, falling technology costs, and increasing competition between power generation technologies have raised the importance of wind operations and maintenance (O&M).
The continuing drive towards lower wind costs has accelerated competition in O&M markets and spurred innovations in O&M contracting.
The importance of O&M costs within the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) can vary widely between wind projects and markets, according to a new survey by New Energy Update.
Some 54% of wind plant owners said that O&M costs account for between 10% and 30% of LCOE, while 12% said O&M costs represent more than 30% of costs. Around 36% said costs represented less than 10% of LCOE. Responses were gathered from 34 asset owners – a further 37 could not provide an estimation.
Conducted in March, the survey polled 557 wind industry participants. Around 60% of respondents focused on North America or Europe. Around 20% of respondents focused on Asia and around 15% focused on Africa with the remainder active in South America and Australasia.
Some 46% of owners said they received the bulk of their revenue from turbines operational for less than five years. Around 31% were more active with turbines of between five and 10 years and 23% more active on turbines of over 10 years.
Around 46% of owners estimated onshore wind O&M costs between $20,000 and $30,000 per MW per year but 32% estimated higher O&M costs for their assets, according to the survey.
Indeed, IHS Markit recently warned that despite technology gains and growing operational experience, the North American wind industry faces rising O&M costs in the coming years due to ageing fleets.
For the rest of the article: https://goo.gl/tFb32c
Filed Under: O&M