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.
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
