Wind power in Scotland is still
one of the fastest-growing renewable
energy technologies, with over 9,300
Megawatts of installed capacity reported
as of June 2020, the vast majority
being onshore. When looking at the
whole of the UK, there are roughly 8,600
commissioned onshore wind turbines
and 2,300 offshore turbines, but one of
the lesser reported statistics is that many
of the current turbines are well into their
lifecycle. A recent report estimated that
around 240 older and typically smaller,
less productive turbines will be taken out
of service every year between now and
2050.
Ongoing reliability is also an issue,
so maintaining the network of turbines
and support infrastructure is becoming
increasingly demanding as components
and systems gradually wear out. This is
why more inspection and preventative
maintenance is needed. One of the wind
farms in Aberdeenshire, for example,
recently had a particular problem with
a Schneider NS800 circuit breaker
malfunctioning, and as the wind turbine
breaker would not work automatically, it
resulted in the wind farm going offline.
Quartzelec quickly sent a qualified engineer to the remote site,
where a full test on the circuit
breaker was carried out.
The motor mechanism was
found to have burnt out, but
fortunately, the client had
a spare motor mechanism
in stock which meant a
replacement could be
carried out immediately. The
system was then fully tested,
ensuring the circuit breaker
was again running correctly in
automatic mode, enabling the
wind farm to return to being
fully operational.
“With ageing equipment
becoming far more common
across the renewable
energy sector, our expertise,
combined with being on-hand to promptly respond
to incidents as they occur,
means that faults can
be prioritised and sorted
without delay,” stated Colin Nicol, one of
Quartzelec’s Regional Sales Engineers.
“Our primary focus is on reducing
downtime and getting a wind farm, or any
other LV or HV operation, back online as quickly and cost-effectively as possible,
whilst keeping lost production to a
minimum.”
www.quartzelec.com