Presentation Description: Failures of wind turbine foundations are not uncommon as wind farms are aging and many owners are looking to repower their inventory for an extended life. Wind farm owners and turbine O&M service providers often apply, unknowingly, outdated processes that do not provide sufficient risk reduction measures (devices, systems, or actions), which can prevent the occurrence of or mitigate the consequence of a foundation-related significant event. A proactive and rigorous process on understanding and managing catastrophic failure, associated with the collapses of wind energy support systems, has become the interest of the renewables industry. Wind farm owners and service providers are seeking to understand the types of events causing failures, and how to identify barriers in their process to avoid similar loss events in the future. A proactive risk assessment is a fundamental part of the process. Bow ties and the barrier-based systematic causal analysis technique (BSCAT) are well-established and industry accepted methodology for investigating incidents, identifying root causes and barriers that could prevent the failure. Through case studies, we will demonstrate the risk of failure for wind (and solar) energy support systems and how such risks are mitigated with the bow ties and supportive BSCAT methodology thinking.
Methodology: Risk methodology such as Bow ties and BSCAT will be discussed.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion, the participant will be able to demonstrate the risk associated with repowering of WTG foundations.
Upon completion, the participant will be able to understand the risk assessment methodology such as bow-ties and BSCAT and how it is applied to mitigate the risk associated with repowering of WTG foundations.
Upon completion, the participant will be able to learn the common measures that should be in place to prevent a WTG foundation catastrophic failure.
