August 17, 2016
New Jersey

Bayonne energy-saving wind turbine stops working again, MUA says

By Jonathan Lin | The Jersey Journal | August 17, 2016 | www.nj.com

BAYONNE – Less than half a year after the city’s wind turbine was repaired, it has stopped working again, the Bayonne Municipal Utilities Authority confirmed.

This time, the problem is with a rotor brake part that isn’t working and needs to be replaced, MUA Executive Director Tim Boyle said.

The replacement part is being shipped to Bayonne from Europe, and the manufacturer of the wind turbine, Leitner-Poma, said the turbine is expected to be back up and running in about a week, according to Boyle.

The MUA director said the problem was first detected by Leitner-Poma, which remotely monitors the turbine, about two weeks ago.

The turbine has a rotor brake to prevent the blades from spinning uncontrollably in extreme weather, Boyle said.

The turbine has a rotor brake to prevent the blades from spinning uncontrollably in extreme weather, Boyle said.

When it was determined that a part of the brake wasn’t working, the turbine was shut off.

The 260-foot wind turbine, located at Oak and Fifth streets, costs the city roughly $25,000 in energy savings for every month it goes unrepaired, Boyle has previously said.

The MUA director said this week that summer is the slowest time of the year for wind movement, and that the fall and winter seasons are the fastest.

He said it’s not known how much repairing the turbine’s rotor brake will cost at this time, and that it’s also not known how long the broken part was supposed to last according to its manufacturer.

The warranty on the wind turbine, which went into operation in June 2012, expired after one year. SUEZ, formerly United Water, monitors and maintains the turbine under a 40-year deal with the MUA, which maintains ownership of it.

Boyle said he expects the repair of the rotor brake to be paid for through the MUA’s deal with SUEZ, which provides for $3 million annually for maintenance and capital improvements.

After costly delays, the turbine was repaired in March after breaking down in June 2015 due to a broken bearing. The turbine’s dormancy cost the city more than $200,000 in energy savings.

Meanwhile, the estimated cost of replacing the broken bearing was $298,000.
Boyle said the MUA is still in negotiations with Leitner-Poma over how much the MUA should pay for that.

When it was working, the turbine produced about 3.3 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to power 600 single-family homes for a year.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2016/08/17/bayonne-energy-saving-wind-turbine-stops-working-again-mua-says/