Argentina's renewable energy expansion is opening a new front: maximizing the efficiency of existing assets and reducing downtime. Vestas projects exceeding 3,000 MW under operation and maintenance this year, after adding between 300 and 400 MW to its local portfolio.
“The challenge is to keep energy unavailability, that is, the time when it is not being generated, to the minimum possible,” said Alejandro Carlos Francisco , Service Director of Vestas Argentina, in dialogue with Energía Estratégica .
“The sector is not only evolving with new turbine models, but it is also evolving very interestingly in the models that are already installed, built and implemented,” he added.
The scale achieved reinforces this priority. Argentina has 4,604 MW of installed wind power in the Wholesale Electricity Market (MEM) , out of a total of 8,466 MW of non-conventional renewable energy. Within this context, Vestas manages 40 wind farms and more than 740 turbines.
According to CAMMESA data provided for this article, there are 1,249 wind turbines distributed across 72 operational projects . Vestas owns 51% of the installed turbines and accounts for 58% of the total installed wind power capacity.
Market maturation also changes the logic of operation and maintenance (O&M). Existing equipment incorporates new algorithms, upgrades, inspection tools, and solutions to anticipate failures , without needing to wait for a new generation of wind turbines.
One of the main changes is in blade inspections. Vestas conducts annual drone campaigns that capture high-resolution images to detect damage and determine necessary repairs.
Automating the flight reduces the duration of these inspections by 50% , during which the machine must remain stopped.
“First, the drone is piloted with artificial intelligence instead of human piloting, which reduces inspection times by half, and this is relevant because the turbine must be stopped to perform the photographic inspection,” the interviewee explained.
There is a second AI application for processing photographs. A task that used to take about a week is now completed in a day , before being sent to the technical team for evaluation.
“That post-processing, instead of taking a week, is reduced to a single day. And, “A well-maintained shovel is a shovel that won’t fail and won’t cause downtime in power generation,” the executive explained.
Vestas is also preparing another application for Argentina. It will soon begin using drones to apply protective coatings to the blades , a technology already used in other markets that will replace some of the tasks currently performed by technicians.
In addition, there are the so-called crawlers , devices that travel internally through the blades from end to end and reach areas inaccessible to a person.
Planning is especially important given a portfolio of 40 wind farms and more than 740 turbines . The annual program aims to carry out maintenance on the turbines during periods of lower wind speeds or when weather conditions minimize the impact of downtime, with the goal of combining routine maintenance with upgrades and other pending interventions.
“The aim is to combine these activities so that when visiting a turbine, all the activities that the turbine needs at that particular moment are covered, in order to have maximum efficiency in the execution and intervene as little as possible during the year,” Francisco explained.
The O&M structure includes around 200 in-house technicians and another 200 workers from subcontracting companies . In total, approximately 400 people are directly and indirectly involved in the operations.
The business model also links service to asset performance. The most requested contract by local customers is the AOM 5000 , through which Vestas guarantees a specific level of availability. If the agreed target is not met, the company receives a contractual penalty. If it exceeds the target, it shares in the profit.
Regarding the repowering of equipment in operation , the interviewee revealed that more than 80% of Vestas' fleet in Argentina has already received modifications to its initial configuration.
“Sometimes it’s improvements to the turbine’s power curve algorithm, so the turbine starts generating more power, or a higher power output in less time, or for a longer period. We have a variety of improvements, and at the end of the day, they deliver a higher power output to our customers’ wind farms,” he explained.
The same pursuit of efficiency extends to the repair of large components. A failure in a gearbox can require a crane to be transported hundreds of kilometers, with the logistical delays that Argentina's vast territory entails.
Vestas will bring to the country this year a transportable tool in two containers that is installed on the wind turbine, which allows replacing an internal part of the gearbox without changing the entire assembly or mobilizing a crane and, with this, prolonging the useful life of the component by intervening only the affected part.
“The goal is always to reduce downtime, because every time you perform maintenance, the turbine has to be stopped,” he summarized.
From dealing with breakdowns to anticipating interventions
The next step is to identify early warning signs and tailor tasks to the specific condition of each asset . The data collected by the various tools allows for greater predictability regarding the behavior of the components.
“Technology allows us to identify earlier warning signs, enabling us to anticipate failures. Failure anticipation will continue to improve, allowing us to adjust maintenance plans to arrive at the right time and perform the appropriate amount of maintenance for the asset's needs,” predicted the Service Director of Vestas Argentina.