July 14, 2008
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Replacing the gearboxes in six faulty wind turbines at East Point in Prince Edward Island is taking longer than expected.
The Vestas turbines were shut down in March after problems were discovered in the gearboxes during routine inspection. Three of the 10 turbines on the site are still not operating.
The province, which owns the wind farm, expected the work to be completed by the end of June. The turbines are under warrantee, and Vestas is paying for the repairs as well as covering for the power lost during the shutdown.
“We have to do the figures on that,” Ron Estabrooks, an energy adviser with the province, told CBC News on Friday.
“There’s a method to calculate what we would have had in production and of course we do have interruption insurance or a warranty on that. So we have to go back to the company and recoup these losses.”
He said the last three turbines should be up and running in the next few weeks. High winds and road closures in late spring slowed down the work at East Point.
The province is two years into its five-year warranty on the Vestas turbines. It costs the province $1 million a year to cover the warranty, operation and maintenance of the site. The capital cost for the wind farm was $47 million.
Estabrooks said the province will likely extend the warranty after five years.
14 July 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/07/14/wind-turbines-still-down/