GE Vernova has said that the recent wind turbine failure at the Dogger Bank A wind farm in the UK North Sea was due to high winds and not a design flaw, according to a recent Seeking Alpha report.
The report quoted GE Vernova officials as saying that the failure occurred in high wind conditions when some of the turbine’s key systems were disabled in the performance of commissioning work.
The incident happened as a major storm approached the region, and the turbine rotor was locked in position and the yaw system that lets the nacelle turn to face the wind was disabled, company officials were quoted as saying.
“The turbine was left in a fixed and static position, rendering it vulnerable during a subsequent storm with high winds,” GE Vernova was quoted by Seeking Alpha as saying. Company officials added that their analysis shows “this blade event was not caused by an installation or manufacturing issue.”
Another blade failed at the same Dogger Bank project in May due to an installation problem, and a blade failure at the US Vineyard Wind project has been linked to a manufacturing issue, according to GE Vernova. The company says it is taking steps to prevent additional accidents.
Both the Dogger Bank and Vineyard Wind projects are using the company’s relatively new Haliade-X turbine.
