The London Array has set a record for the amount of electricity produced by an offshore windfarm in a single calendar month.
The 175-turbine windfarm, located 20 km off the Kent coast in the outer Thames Estuary, generated 369,000 MWh of electricity in December 2015 – considerably above the previous best of 317,000 MWh set last November. The capacity factor for the month, which saw average wind speeds of 11.9m/s (27mph), was 78.9%.
The two successive months of production brought net overall output for the year to 2,500,000 MWh, enough to meet the needs of more than 600,000 UK households, said the London Array operator.
Jonathan Duffy, general manager of London Array, which is the world’s largest operational offshore wind farm, said: “Both the monthly and annual figures are excellent results for London Array and show the contribution we are making to the country’s energy supply as well as the UK’s renewable energy targets.
“Above average winds this winter have helped push production higher but that is only part of the story: we have a great team of people who support the operation and maintenance of the wind farm.”
Duffy said that the strong performance could be attributed to the introduction of predictive maintenance, which has reduced downtime, and to improved scheduling of maintenance teams.
He said: “We have pushed very hard over the past year to build on our earlier successes and develop our approach to turbine maintenance and repair.
“Together with contractors Dong Energy and Siemens we have focused on operational efficiency and expanding the amount of time our technicians are able to work offshore. This has helped ensure we extracted the maximum power from the wind and kept turbine availability above 98 per cent over the winter.”
In the June 2015 issue, PE wrote a feature looking at maintenance activities on the London Array. It can be read here.