Meetings

General Assembly Meeting (Durham, UK)

5 May 2010, hosted by Durham University


(Durham Cathedral and Wear River)

ReliaWind consortium met in Durham, UK to have its fifth General Assembly meeting.

Deliverables and latest results of WP3 has been presented on the meeting:
3.0: Overall Integration Assurance
3.1: Mitigation of failures by control action
3.2: Agents for Failure Detection
3.3: Agents for Failure Location
3.4: Agents for Fault Prognosis
3.5: Generation of Maintenance Activities
3.6: Planning for Maintenance Activities
3.7: Support for Maintenance Decision Making
Due to the good results and findings in WP3, partners agreed to prolong WP3 activities. WP4 activities have already started in parallel.

Durham University, as the WP5 (Training) & WP6 (Dissemination,communication & exploitation) leader, also reported the main achievements of the first two years. Durham University has developed professional reliability training materials which summarise the experiences of wind turbine reliability studies carried out in ReliaWind. Nine training courses were completed for 142 professionals.

During the meeting, ReliaWind consortium has discussed to initiate an European wind turbine reliability standard,defining and codifying wind turbine taxonomy and data collection method. ReliaWind will seek for the collaboration with the IEC 61400 standards committee.

Mid-term review Meeting (Brussels, Belgium)

7 & 8 October 2009, hosted by Interface Europe 

 
(Grand Place, Brussels)

After the 18-months of the project, Reliawind consortium met in Brussels to hold a mid-term review meeting.
On 8 October 2008, the European Commission (Thierry Langlois d'Estaintot) attended the meeting, so that to assess the progress of work and present the European Industry's expectations towards the project.
Deliverables of WP1 (Field Reliability Analysis) have been presented on the meetings:
1.1: Collation of data
1.2: Data processing and quality control
1.3: Derivation of reliability profiles
Deliverables of WP2 (Design for Reliability) have also been presented on the meetings:
2.0: Overall integration assurance
2.1-2.9: Design for reliability of different assemblies, including pitch system (electrical & hydraulic),gearbox, converter, generator, control system, blades, etc.

General Assembly Meeting (Kolding, Denmark)

17 April 2009, hosted by LM Glasfiber (now LM Wind Power)

 
(The building of LM wind tunnel)

After the 12-months of the project, Reliawind consortium met in Kolding, Denmark to hold the General Assembly meeting.

General Assembly Meeting (Lommel, Belgium)

22 & 23 October 2008, hosted by Hansen Transmission

After the first 6-months of the project, Reliawind consortium met again in order to assess the first project results and to increase cooperation among Partners.

On 23 October 2008, the European Commission (Thierry Langlois d'Estaintot) attend the meeting, so that to assess the progress of work and present the European Industry's expectations towards the project. 

Kick-off Meeting (Madrid, Spain)

8 & 9 April 2008, hosted by Gamesa

EUROPEAN COMMISSION CO-FINANCED PROJECT “RELIAWIND” KICKS-OFF

  • Reliawind will provide more efficient and reliable wind turbines by 2011.

  • NREL, the US based National Laboratory, has been invited to be the first member of the “Reliability Panel”.

  • “Users Working Group” is created in order to interact with world leading wind farm owners.

Project Reliawind has officially kicked-off. Consortium members gathered in Gamesa’s offices in Madrid for a launch meeting.

With 78 deliverables planned, the Reliawind project’s main goal is to usher in a new generation of more efficient and reliable wind turbines, providing practical results to be used in wind turbine design, operations and maintenance. The project will be developed over three years, for completion by March 2011 with a total budget of 7.7 M€ and EC funding of 5.2 M€.

Ten top partners are taking part in this ambitious project, each of them leaders in technical and operational disciplines in the wind power generation value chain.

This includes the Wind Industry itself, Gamesa (project coordinator), Ecotecnia (now Alstom Power Systems -Wind), LM Glasfiber (now LM Wind Power), Hansen, ABB and SKF.

Technology experts are Garrad Hassan (now GL Garrad Hassan) and Relex (now part of PTC). Academia is represented by Durham University in UK and SZTAKI, a Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, Hungary.

Project’s Objectives

The project aims to achieve better efficiency for wind turbines, through the deployment of new systems with reduced maintenance requirements and increased availability. To this end, the project proposes architecture directed at a modular design more immune to environmental conditions, permitting the replacement of components simply and quickly; to improve monitoring systems for components and thus achieve more accurate diagnosis; and to develop preventive maintenance algorithms for failure anticipation. These new technologies will be integrated in future generations of wind turbine components, wind turbines and wind farms.

Project Advisory Bodies

A “Reliability Panel” has been established in order to interact with top-level experts in reliability worldwide, not necessarily from the wind energy sector, such as aerospace and other sectors where reliability is paramount. Its mission is to share conclusions, establish guidelines, etc. The first invitation to join the “Reliability panel” has been issued to NREL, the US National Laboratory.

A “Users Working Group” has also been established in order to interact with top wind farm owners worldwide. Its mission will be to share experiences in wind farm operation and maintenance, providing feedback on “best practice”. The first invitations to potential members will be issued shortly. 

Pre-consortium Meeting (Barcelona, Spain)

4 October 2007, hosted by Ecotecnia (now Alstom Power Systems-Wind)

Reliawind consortium met in Barcelona in order to prepare the negotiation of the Grant Agreement and the Consortium Agreement. This meeting before the start of the project was a great opportunity for the Partners to precise the needs, to remind the project objectives and to detail the requested collaborations.