This is a first for VALEMO on a wind park. Indeed, VALEMO normally ensures the maintenance via the turbiner. But it is thanks to years of experience acquired with several turbiners and a careful preparation of the method that VALEMO can now offer its maintenance services directly to VALOREM Asset Management (owner of the Criel sur Mer wind farm SPV).
The context
Location : Criel-Sur-Mer 76910
Type of machine: Acciona AW 82 / 1500 (1st value = rotor diameter, 2nd = unit power of the machine)
Number of machine : 4
Commissioning date: March 2011
Our involvement
Since 2011, the SPV has subcontracted maintenance to the Nordex/Acciona turbine manufacturer, which in turn subcontracts routine preventive and corrective maintenance to VALEMO. As the maintenance contract ends on 31 August 2022, we are now in a transitional period so that the VALEMO maintenance department can take over the complete maintenance of the turbines independently.
vVALEMO’s Methods department manages the distribution of available documentation from ACCIONA and associated OEMs; the existing documentation base has been cleaned, sorted, arranged and reindexed to facilitate availability and access. Technical documentation is a key issue for machine maintenance.
This methods centre also supports the SPV in defining the consignment stock via an analysis of the turbine manufacturer’s recommendations and known breakdowns on the Criel and Aunis parks, based on our maintenance history on these 2 parks equipped with similar ACCIONA AW1500s.
A network of suppliers and a directory were set up for the supply of preventive and corrective maintenance parts.
A first part of the consignment stock was received, inventoried and stored in the AMIENS base according to the 5S principle.
At the same time, a deported stock was set up in order to be closer to the Criel park. We will thus be more reactive to treat breakdowns that may occur on the machines. We will thus be more reactive to treat breakdowns that may occur on the machines.
The stock is therefore divided into two parts, one part being at the Amiens base, the other part being at the small base at Oust-Marest. In Oust, we have the critical parts (i.e. parts that most commonly break down) available, while in Amiens we have the bulky parts that are less critical in terms of failure redundancy.
The team in place is divided into 2 people in Oust Marest and 2 people in Amiens, it is therefore composed of 4 technicians with between 2 and 20 years of experience in wind energy with at least 5 years of experience on the Criel park.
Some significant figures
| Years | Average length of downtime | TI average | TR average |
| 2021 | 15:00:59 | 13:03:50 | 01:57:08 |
| 2022 | 09:23:31 | 07:35:59 | 01:47:32 |
We can see a reduction in the average time for a breakdown of around 5.5 hours on average between 2021 and 2022, mainly in the IT intervention time (time between the occurrence of the breakdown and arrival on site). The time between the start of the breakdown and its resolution remains similar, at 1 hour 57 minutes in 2021 compared with 1 hour 47 minutes in 2022.
