Reliability, O&M, Standards Development

Building on a foundation of analysis capabilities, methods, and industry partnerships established in the Continuous Reliability Enhancement for Wind (CREW) Database and the Blade Reliability Collaborative (BRC), as well as incorporating Sandia’s high-performance computing (HPC) resources and expertise, this work fosters the emergence and establishment of standards that influence wind turbine design, wind industry data collection and storage techniques, and analysis methods.

The IEA Task 33 Working Group on Reliability Data unites experts from around the world, with the common purpose of “standardizing data collection for wind turbine analysis.”

Sandia works to influence standards development with sound information and to promote higher standards that:

• improve wind turbine design and performance,
• improve quality, and
• reduce performance risks and costs.

With elements of reliability and performance engineering, this work can leverage the knowledge of DOE researchers and the results of DOE research turbines (including future offshore units) to influence the development of standards that increase the performance of all wind turbines and wind plants.

Sandia’s current and recent work in this area includes contributions to the industry through:

• the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61400-26-1, -2, and -3 Availability Standards,
• the IEC-61400-1 Design Requirements Standard,
• the International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 33 working group on Reliability Data, and
• the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Operations and Maintenance Working Group’s best practices document for data collection.