Annual Power Engineering Exchange (APEX) Southern 2012

The Programme - Flyer

APEX PAPER WINNER 2012

Bayleigh Baird, Merdian Energy Ltd

Bayleigh has been working as a graduate engineer for Meridian Energy since early 2011. To date she has worked on Meridian’s wind farms and hydro stations across New Zealand on a variety of projects and with different teams including the wind, reliability and strategic engineering teams. She is currently based in Twizel, working for the tactical engineering team. Bayleigh completed her mechanical engineering degree (first class honours) at the University of Waikato in 2010.

West Wind - Wind Farm End of Warranty Inspections

Thorough inspections were carried out in 2011 on all 62 2.3 MW wind turbines at Meridian’s West Wind wind farm. These inspections were done in response to a decision made by Meridian to bring servicing and maintenance of the wind farm in-house, an unusual decision in the wind industry. The inspections were carried out at the end of the turbine’s two year warranty period (provided by the turbine OEM) and their purpose was to identify any defects or signs of future issues that might be covered under the warranty purchased when the wind farm was built. A number of defects were found during the inspections that had not been picked up by condition monitoring. These have now been fixed under warranty, thereby avoiding damage through early detection and saving Meridian in maintenance costs during the first years of running the wind farm.

Presentations