Development of a vulnerability map of wind turbine power converters

Abstract: With the amount of turbines that are already installed and that are planned to be installed in order to meet all the carbon emission objectives set by Governments worldwide, a means of producing a way to determine and highlight weak links or components that are more likely to fail would be extremely beneficial. One way to do this is via vulnerability maps. This paper looks at producing a vulnerability map for the power converter of a wind turbine using maintenance reports. The vulnerability map is a useful means to identify which sub-systems/components to consider when determining lifetime extension of wind turbine drivetrains. All the components that were either replaced or repaired are grouped together to determine their failure rates. Their rates are then ranked from highest to lowest and each component that makes up a typical power converter diagram coloured according to its failure rate, from red for the highest, through to orange, yellow and green for the lowest. The results show that there are three clear components that failed more often than the rest. An additional analysis looks at whether the location of the turbines alter the vulnerability map and this is confirmed. Although the same three components have the highest failure rates, their values change according to which country they are installed.