The SPARTA (System performance, Availability and Reliability Trend Analysis) project will improve wind turbine operational performance by increasing safety, reliability and availability, thereby cutting the cost of electricity generated from offshore wind.
SPARTA is a major collaborative project between ORE Catapult, The Crown Estate and offshore wind farm owner/operators.
The project is a database for sharing anonymised offshore wind farm performance and maintenance data. Owner/operator participants are provided with robust and reliable benchmarked data for the first time, helping to identify operational improvements and cost reduction opportunities at both company and sector-wide levels.
SPARTA is managed by ORE Catapult and The Crown Estate, with owner/operators Orsted, Centrica, EDF Energy Renewables, E.ON, innogy, Scottish Power Renewables, SSE, Statkraft, Statoil and Vattenfall all contributing members.
THE SPARTA PRODUCTION-BASED AVAILABILITY BENCHMARKS, DEVELOPED BY OWNER/OPERATORS FOR OWNER/OPERATORS, PROVIDES US WITH AN INDEPENDENT AND TRUSTWORTHY MEASURE OF WIND FARM PERFORMANCE AGAINST OUR PEERS. – Martin Stanyon – CENTRICA
Since the initial conceptualisation of SPARTA, the collaboration has successfully developed a secure, stable working system, realising the following benefits:
• agreed set of standard key performance metrics;
• consistency of reporting at project, portfolio and sector level;
• quality assurance through targeted auditing,
• monthly aggregation of metrics and comprehensive data sets, allowing members to benchmark and analyse for trends and insights to aid performance improvements;
• peer group professional networks at strategic and technical levels;
• monthly reporting at both detailed technical levels in the form of data sets and “at a glance” graphical representations.
