Overview

Operation & Maintenance (O&M) costs are the main cost driver in offshore energy due to the difficult accessibility to the WTs, but also due to the environmental conditions. O&M costs can account for up to 30% of the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) and sensing & monitoring systems could help attain the expected fall to 70 EUR/MWh by 2030. The highest criticality (in €/kWh) in offshore wind is caused by structural failure, that mainly occurs due to corrosion processes non-adequately neither predicted nor monitored. For that reason, it is crucial to implement new monitoring, diagnosis, prognosis and control tools into the offshore wind farms (WFs) to enable Wind Farm Operators (WFOs) to take predictive smart O&M decisions fully considering structural components real and future status. WATEREYE Project project has received funding from the European Innovation and Networks Executive Agency under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 851207. It aims to develop an integral solution that will allow to WFOs a 4% reduction of OPEX, accurately predicting the need for future maintenance strategy and increasing the offshore wind annual energy production.