Systems engineering

When you look at Moné’s [1] definition for the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE),

\[LCoE = \frac{\left( CapEx \cdot FCR \right) + OpEx}{AEP_{net} }\]

with:

\(LCoE\)
levelized cost of energy \(\left[ \frac{ \text{€} }{ \text{kWh} } \right]\)
\(CapEx\)
capital expenditures \(\left[ \frac{ \text{€} }{ \text{kW} } \right]\)
\(FCR\)
fixed charge rate [%] (a financial term, not further discussed here).
\(OpEx\)
annual operational expenditures \(\left[ \frac{ \text{€} }{ \text{kW} \cdot \text{yr} } \right]\)
\(AEP_{net}\)
net annual energy production \(\left[ \frac{ \text{kWh} }{ \text{kW} \cdot \text{yr} } \right]\)

you see that it contains four terms. Three of them depend on engineering:

  • The \(CapEx\) is directly linked to the cost of your product,
  • The \(OpEx\) to your product’s reliability
  • and the \(AEP_{net}\) to performance.

These three aspects are representing the Cost, Performance & Reliability of functions linking sales to designed wind turbine components. The way to manage these aspects throughout the product life-cycle is by deploying Systems Engineering to Product Life-cycle Management (PLM).

We provide support, guidance and on-the-job training to wind turbine OEM by using various Systems Engineering methods.

further reading:



[1]Moné et al, 2015, 2013 Cost of Wind Energy Review, NREL, http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy15osti/63267.pdf