Cranes Cost 50% of Wind Turbine Maintenance Expenses. Here’s How to Reduce That
Ever since its invention to lift water for irrigation 5,000
years ago in Mesopotamia, the crane has been essential for lifting and moving
heavy loads. The Roman empire added treadwheels so a single person could lift
thousands of pounds. The first hydraulic-powered crane dates back to 1838. Now
a wide variety of cranes allow many of the things we take for granted in a
modern society — the type depends on the weight being lifted, the height it
needs to be lifted to, and how long the crane will remain in place.
Fixed tower cranes allow the construction of immense skyscrapers. Robotic
industrial cranes move products and equipment during manufacturing processes.
Horizontal gantry cranes lift and lay sections of bridges and overpasses on
highways and load and unload massive container ships at ports.
In wind energy, several styles of mobile cranes are used,
including crawler cranes, all-terrain truck-mounted cranes and even floating
cranes for offshore installations. Recently, purpose-built wind turbine
assembly cranes have begun to enter the market, hoisting themselves to the top
of wind towers and then lifting the turbine components into place.
As turbines
proliferate and towers grow to sky-scraping heights, cranes will continue to
play an essential role in our clean energy future. Crane equipment and labor
costs make up anywhere from 30 to 50% of the cost of turbine maintenance.
Further innovations in positioning and scheduling these cranes, and in training
the required labor force, can help control these costs.
Two of the primary costs of crane operation are transportation
and downtime. Cranes can be as large as the towers they erect and, depending on
the type, must be dismantled for transportation from site to site. A single
day’s rental can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000, depending on the size
required.
Transporting a crane to the site typically requires 20 or more
truckloads. Each truck can move a load about 600 miles a day, or multiple loads
over a shorter distance. If a crane needs to move 100 miles, it would likely
need a truck to move two to three loads in a day. Mobilization cost can be
almost 50% of overall crane cost for a single turbine repair.
Economies of
scale and careful planning can help to solve this problem. Say a turbine needs
major maintenance every five years, on average, and the maintenance cycle lasts
one week. If used efficiently, a single crane could theoretically maintain 52
turbines per year, or 260 turbines over five years. When large numbers of
turbines — 150 to 200+ — are located close together, a crane can be dedicated
full-time to that site, cutting down dramatically on relocation costs.
On-site labor
downtime can add up as well. Once the crane is delivered, it takes a few days
to set it up, depending on crane type. When maintenance tasks are completed, it
takes another couple days to dismantle and prepare for loading onto trucks to start
the process again.
The crane team and turbine technician team work on different
scopes. Whenever the crane is being assembled, moved or disassembled, the tech
team is idle and more crane personnel are needed. Once the crane is ready to
work, the technicians are working but fewer people are needed on the crane
side. This leads to inefficiencies on both teams; up to 40% of labor costs can
come from idle time.
Cross-training technicians to be proficient in both crane
operation and wind turbine maintenance can be an effective way to reduce costs
and improve the efficiency of the entire process. By eliminating the need for
separate technicians for each task, companies can save significantly on
recruiting and reduce the number of personnel on site.
In addition to the direct savings, cross-training can also
improve the overall efficiency of the maintenance process. Having technicians
familiar with both cranes and wind turbine communication and coordination can
streamline the work and further reduce downtime. And for the wind turbine
owner, this makes the process far easier, as a single contractor can complete
each element of the turbine maintenance process.
However, cross-training technicians can be a significant
undertaking, as it requires time and resources to provide the necessary
education and ensure that technicians are proficient in both areas. Investments
in additional equipment and training materials may be needed. Clean Energy
Services has achieved this in the short term by developing an in-house cross-training
program. For the longer term, CES has partnered with Houston Community College
to develop courses in crane operations and turbine maintenance, ensuring a
consistent pipeline of skilled labor.
Despite these challenges, the cost savings and efficiency
improvements make cross-training crane teams a potentially worthwhile
investment for companies involved in wind turbine maintenance, on top of the
savings to be found for the cranes themselves.
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