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Article
Publication date: 12 October 2015

Lijuan Dai, Marvin Rausand and Ingrid Bouwer Utne

Maintenance planning is a complicated decision-making process that involves the major stakeholders and the main life-cycle phases of an engineering system. The purpose of this…

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Abstract

Purpose

Maintenance planning is a complicated decision-making process that involves the major stakeholders and the main life-cycle phases of an engineering system. The purpose of this paper is to propose an availability-centred maintenance planning approach for offshore wind farms, with special focus on the early system design phase.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed approach is based on a stepwise procedure that integrates logistics consideration into reliability-centred maintenance. For each step, the essential methods for systematic analysis and documentation are introduced.

Findings

Practical information from current offshore wind farms and lessons learned from relevant industries are included to exemplify and justify the implementation of the proposed approach. In a general way, the approach shows that valuable input can be provided to decision making about maintainability and maintenance planning. Furthermore, the approach facilitates the initial maintenance plan to be adjusted and improved upon as additional operating experience becomes available.

Research limitations/implications

Offshore wind energy is still an industry in its infancy with an attendant high degree of confidentiality. There is scarcely any detailed practical information available for the production of a case study on this topic. However, the current paper’s theoretical basis may be applied to identify current and future knowledge gaps, for the development of more detailed guidelines as established in the further research.

Originality/value

Maintenance planning of offshore wind farms is an area of current interest, although often the focus is on achieving cost reductions and not on the formal development of such a systematic approach as conceived in this paper.

Details

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2511

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Article
Publication date: 28 September 2010

Ingrid Bouwer Utne

The objective of this paper is to outline a framework that guides the development of sound maintenance strategies and policies for deep‐sea offshore wind turbines.

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Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this paper is to outline a framework that guides the development of sound maintenance strategies and policies for deep‐sea offshore wind turbines.

Design/methodology/approach

An important challenge with offshore wind energy production is to reduce the high operation and maintenance costs. To decrease complexity, and structure the maintenance strategy developing process, systems engineering principles are used.

Findings

The framework facilitates integration of fragmented but valuable information from different disciplines in the development of sound maintenance strategies. In addition, the framework may be used to identify knowledge gaps, and areas for further research.

Research limitations/implications

The paper refers to research on deep‐sea offshore wind turbines, which is in its infancy, with a limited amount of data yet available for verification and validation. Deep‐sea offshore installations are not commercialized, and few pilot installations have been installed.

Originality/value

The design of the offshore wind turbines determines operation and maintenance features. Reducing operation and maintenance costs is necessary to make deep‐sea offshore wind projects viable in the first place. The framework contributes to the complicated development of maintenance strategies for a system not yet realized.

Details

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, vol. 16 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2511

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Article
Publication date: 25 May 2012

Ingrid Utne, Lars Thuestad, Kaare Finbak and Tom Anders Thorstensen

The purpose of this paper is to present an approach for measuring the ability of oil and gas production plants to utilize shutdowns opportunistically for maintenance.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present an approach for measuring the ability of oil and gas production plants to utilize shutdowns opportunistically for maintenance.

Design/methodology/approach

Key performance indicators have been developed from case studies with two offshore oil and gas installations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The key performance indicators measure the quality of the work preparations and the ability to utilize shutdowns opportunistically. Shutdowns may provide opportunities for execution of maintenance, but it is hardly possible to undertake any maintenance work requiring shutdown if the organization is not well prepared and the work is not well planned.

Findings

The results from testing of the indicators on two oil and gas installations shows that several of the indicators are relevant for determining the quality of preparations, whereas more effort needs to be put into gathering data applicable for monitoring the actual utilization of the shutdowns.

Research limitations/implications

Production losses, due to turnarounds and unforeseen shutdowns in oil and gas operations, are significant, and the improvement potential is large. The indicators may assist maintenance managers in planning and improving the plant's utilization of shutdowns and may contribute to substantial cost savings.

Originality/value

The approach in the paper adds important knowledge on how to actually measure the quality of maintenance work planning and execution.

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