Tracy Jarvis, General Manager at the Texas-based Buffalo Gap Wind Farm, talks to Wind Energy Update on the greater responsibilities and benefits of increasing the capacity of the farm; some of its post warranty O&M methods to cut costs without minimizing operational capabilities; what changes to the supply chain would have the biggest positive impact on wind farm production capacity, the most rewarding thing about working in this business sector and the one thing that should be changed to make it even better.

Interview by Katherine Steiner-Dicks

Q: The Buffalo Gap (1-3) wind farm has placed a greater dominance of wind energy as a long-term power source for the US state of Texas. For example, the Buffalo Gap 3 increased the total capacity of the Phase I and II expansions of the farm from 121MW to 524MW. With this greater dominance comes greater responsibility to employees, energy suppliers and energy consumers, how have your responsibilities and challenges been reflected by this increased capacity?

A: The increased capacity has made it possible for our site to provide more generation to the grid when the power is needed, so yes, I would say that it’s an even greater responsibility. It also gives us some additional flexibility in the fact that if one of the phases is not available for some operational issue or perhaps another reason, then we have two other phases that would be available. 

Q: Overall, what has been the most common cause of down time for the Buffalo Gap wind farm assets/farm projects?

A: Our Project has three different types of turbines, so each one seems to have its own set of issues. However, across the three, generator issues seem to top the list as a common problem. 

Q: Have you looked into ways to alleviate this problem in future? If so, what actions are you taking and has a solution of sorts been found?

A: Yes, we have an in-house process and tools used to access an issue by finding the Root Cause (RCA) and developing a solution for that issue. This process may include brainstorming ideas from within our team or reaching out to experts in a specific field if needed. The idea is not to continue to do the same thing over and over, but to fix the problem such that it doesn’t continue to occur. 

Some of the actions we’ve taken include to improving the cooling of control boxes, so that these components don’t overheat and cause the turbine to fault. We were seeing this in particular when the wind was blowing well and the internal equipment was generating a lot of heat. With the improved cooling we rarely see this fault. Another solution that is being implemented as generators fail is to “beef-up” some of the internal components. We developed this solution by working with an electrical shop that was rebuilding generators for us and other owners. 

Q: What are some of your post warranty O&M methods to cut costs without minimizing operational capabilities or even boost power capacity? 

A: First of all, we run with a very “lean” team. Our number of Techs per turbine is about one technician to 12 turbines. Secondly, we put a lot of time and effort into resolving operational issues related to downtime, i.e. RCA and operational improvement projects. Thirdly, we have a High Voltage person that with support inspects and maintains all of our collection lines, substations, and High Voltage transmission lines.

Q: Do you have any new technology/supplier products in testing? If so, where are they being tested; what was your reasoning behind running the tests; and what end benefits are you hoping to achieve?

A: Yes, we are currently testing Continuous Based Monitoring (CBM) systems. We have some test units installed on our GE turbines with the expectation that we would be able to “see” an issue with a gearbox or generator before they reached a catastrophic point. This would allow us to repair the problem without having to exchange the component (up-tower repair) or have enough time to plan the exchange based on parts, crane, and wind availability. 

Q: What aspects of the O&M supply chain do you believe could be improved to boost production capacity and less downtime for wind farm owners/operators?

A: Parts availability would have the largest impact. Currently some parts can be supplied by aftermarket vendors and some are still only available through the OEM. This availability varies greatly between turbine suppliers. Many of the parts that we get from the OEM are still coming from Europe; however, it has improved greatly compared to two to three years ago. 

Q: What do you love most about working in the wind energy sector?

A: The people. This is a relatively new industry and the people that are involved in it seem to be very energized and creative. It continues to evolve and now there has been a lot of people coming from the “conventional” power sector and bringing their experience along with those who have been in the wind for some time and the interchange of ideas and processes has been exciting. 

Q: If there was one thing you could change about the wind energy sector, what would it be and why?

A: Energy storage. If there was a way to capture the Wind Energy and store it for use at a more useful time would be a great achievement. I believe this would have a large impact on pricing stability and make the wind energy more valuable to the end consumer.