Mexico: Record-Breaking Wind Power

The Operation and Maintenance team at the Stipa Nayaa plant (Oaxaca State) has replaced a turbine at the wind farm in record time. Efficiency and rapidity ensure top plant performance before the upcoming season of strong winds, which in this area can reach peaks exceeding 60-70 km per hour Everything is ready at Stipa Nayaa for the beginning of the season when the Gulf of Mexico will be swept by strong winds. Enel Green Power’s wind farm in the State of Oaxaca is preparing to face that period of the year during which gusts of wind can blow at up to 70 km per hour and, as if the winds are playing the lead in a grand performance, EGP Mexico’s Operation and maintenance (0&M) team has set the best possible stage.

In a record time of just 12 days,the team managed to plan and carry out, observing all security regulations and no accidents, the replacement of the wind farm’s WTG 35 turbine, minimising energy losses – only 108 MWh, equivalent to $6,000 – and deftly managing an emergency worksite in which EGP technicians operated in perfect synergy with personnel and staff of contracting companies and a 1,500-tonne crane.

On the “Jaguar Hill” – this is the meaning of Tehuantepec, the province where the Stipa Nayaa wind farm has been built – trade winds can reach peaks exceeding 60-70 km per hour, and these strong winds have turned the Mexican isthmus into one of the most promising areas in the world for wind power generation. At the same time, due to its peculiarities, this area is one of the most challenging for the installation of wind farms and turbines, which must be able to operate under unique natural conditions, ensuring competitive capacity factors.

Effective plant management, and optimised maintenance and operational costs are factors that result in higher production, less environmental impact, the development of economies of scale and the continual improvement of results. For Enel Green Power’s development strategy from now until 2018 crucially depends on O&M, together with geographical and technical diversification and financial solidity.

The improvement of the capacity factor reveals the company’s focus on O&M activities, since it is the ratio of a plant’s actual output over a period of time, to its potential output if it were possible for it to operate at full nameplate capacity continuously over the same period of time.