On October 16, 2013, the Beijing International Wind Energy Conference and Exhibition was held in Beijing. The theme of this conference is quality and health. It is understood that China currently ranks first in the world in terms of cumulative wind power installed capacity, with an additional 12.96 million kilowatts of wind power installed in 2012, a total installed capacity of 75.32 million kilowatts, and a grid-connected capacity of 62.30 million kilowatts, generating 100.4 billion kilowatt-hours annually. Wind power has become the third largest power source in China. However, with the development of wind power, the quality issues of wind turbines have become increasingly prominent.
Wang Jun, director of the New Energy and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Administration, stated at the conference that quality and health are the foundation for the development of the wind power industry. Currently, with the rapid increase in wind power installed capacity, accidents caused by wind power quality issues are also on the rise. China's wind power technology level still has a certain gap compared to international advanced levels, so ensuring the quality of wind power equipment is an important guarantee for the sustainable development of the wind power industry.
At this conference, Qin Haiyan, secretary-general of the China Wind Energy Association, announced the results of the wind power equipment quality survey. He also stated that in order to comprehensively understand the quality technology and product situation of wind power in China, guide the establishment of a good market order, and establish an objective, fair, open, and transparent market mechanism to promote the healthy development of the wind power industry, the National Energy Administration has commissioned the Wind Energy Association to conduct a survey on the operational quality of wind power equipment nationwide for three consecutive years since 2010.
The quality ranking statistics from the China Wind Energy Association show that the top five companies with the highest average availability of units include: Vestas, Goldwind, GE, Gamesa, and Mingyang Wind Power; the top five companies with the lowest frequency of faults are: GE, Goldwind, Shanghai Electric, and Mingyang Wind Power; the top five companies with the least average fault clearance time are Shanghai Electric, Goldwind, Huarey Wind Power, United Power, and Xiangdian Wind Energy.
This ranking is based on three indicators: unit availability, fault occurrence frequency, and average fault clearance time. Qin Haiyan pointed out that unit availability comprehensively reflects the management of unit design, manufacturing, service, and spare parts levels, which helps to macro-manage the overall situation of wind power equipment. Fault occurrence frequency is used to measure the frequency of faults. Average fault clearance time focuses on the reliability of wind power equipment, which can provide a basis for quality improvement of units, thereby reducing the likelihood of faults occurring again.
From the ranking, it can be seen that Goldwind, as a leading domestic wind turbine manufacturer, has delivered an impressive report card. This has laid a good foundation for domestic wind turbines to enter the international arena and further narrowed the gap with advanced foreign wind turbine technology.
However, Qin Haiyan also stated that the samples and data for this survey were submitted by developers and may not be complete or objective, and may not be very representative, thus lacking a basis for investment.
Shi Lishan, deputy director of the New Energy and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Administration, expressed his expectations for this, hoping that all companies involved in equipment manufacturing do not underestimate quality issues. In the future, the industry will establish a set of methods to select different manufacturers, different technologies, and different resources for long-term monitoring. At the same time, monitoring will also be conducted on the condition of wind turbine equipment, management situations, and other aspects, and continuous evaluation indicators for the industry will be introduced. The evaluation results will certainly impact the development of the entire industry, the investment decisions of developers, and the market situation of manufacturers.
Shi Lishan repeatedly emphasized the hope that industry insiders pay attention to quality issues, and after several years of effort, the wind power industry can align with international standards, creating a very complete, competitive, and sustainable wind power industry internationally.
