Condition Based Maintenance of the Yaw Motor in a Wind Turbine Using an Indirect Indicator: A Case Study

Currently, the tremendous failure cost restricts the rapid development of wind energy industry. Condition based maintenance is one of the most effective strategies to reduce the maintenance cost of wind turbines. However, this paper aims to develop a maintenance optimization model based on the prediction of remaining useful life (RUL) of yaw motor that is an important component of a wind turbine. A practical case is considered rather than theoretical models that most of the existing studies dealt with. The prediction accuracy of RUL is greatly improved with an indirect indicator. Both the maintenance optimization models of preventive activities and opportunistic activities are proposed. The developed methods are expected to bring valuable benefits to the wind energy industry and provide reference for the maintenance of yaw motors in a wind turbine.