Siemens Gamesa’s Gearboxes for MHI Vestas-Powered Princess Amalia OWF

Siemens Gamesa has won a tender for the supply of gearboxes for Eneco’s ten-year-old Princess Amalia offshore wind farm (Prinses Amaliawindpark) that features 60 V80-2.0MW wind turbines delivered by Vestas and maintained by MHI Vestas, which will continue to carry out the regular preventive maintenance for the next five years.

The scope of work for Siemens Gamesa comprises providing gearboxes, new or refurbished, for the purpose of exchange on the wind turbine generators at the wind farm. This includes maintaining a stock/pool of three to four gearboxes and an additional supply of up to two gearboxes per campaign, according to Eneco’s call for tenders issued last year.

This is the latest of several new contracts signed as part of Eneco’s “smart asset management” set-up for the offshore wind farm, for which the government subsidy period has expired.

Arjan Donker, Operational Manager Offshore Wind at Eneco: “We have an extensive portfolio of both existing wind farms and projects in the pipeline. Consequently, it is essential to continuously keep an eye out for better, smarter and more cost effective management and maintenance possibilities. This is particularly important for a wind farm that has to operate without financial support in the form of subsidy.”

Along with Siemens Gamesa’s gearboxes, the developer has chosen GEV Windpower for the maintenance of rotor blades and ØER Energy, a subsidiary of the Norwegian company NSG Wind, for supplying technicians specialised in the replacement of main components.

Since the beginning of this year, all transport and lifting services are provided by MPI Contractors, which will use one of its crane vessels. Eneco said that, in the coming years, the costs related to replacement of the main components will be minimised by optimising the use of the most expensive component – the crane vessel.

“This makes it possible to combine the replacement of a number of main components, such as gearboxes, generators and/or rotor blades, in a single maintenance operation. In addition, we have opted for a flexible planning mechanism, which gives MPI Contractors room to optimise the use of their crane vessel in several projects,” the company stated.

The 120MW wind farm, operational since 2008, is located 23km off the coast of IJmuiden, the Netherlands.