A new method to estimate the O&M costs for the financial planning of the wind power projects based on wind speed

A new analytical method is proposed which finds reliability, average failure rate and the operation and maintenance cost of wind turbine generator (WTG) using site wind data considering the WTG as a non-repairable system. The failure rate function is developed using WTG failure frequency published by renewable energy information system on internet (REISI), Germany. The presented method works computationally fast and do not need large wind data input, which is a requirement of many existing commercially available simulation methods. The increasing operation and maintenance costs computed by this method give better financial assessment of wind power projects. The developed method is implemented on an Indian wind site and operation and maintenance costs are obtained for 20 years. Results match the field data for the survey period barring their warranty period. It is hoped that the proposed method helps financial investors and equity holders for a better financial assessment of the wind power projects in their planning stage.