Vandalism and theft are having an immediate effect on the profitability of wind turbine generators. Apart from the damage done, burglaries cause unforeseeable yield losses, generating massive financial costs. “The sum resulting from repairs and downtime per occurrence can easily reach six-digit figures“, explains Gerrit Baerwald, Technical Management at wpd windmanager GmbH & Co KG. “Access for offenders is often made easy by remote turbine sites and insecure standard doors lacking special burglary protection.” Since manufacturer-dependent solutions are often very costly and sometimes not available any more for older turbines, wpd windmanager GmbH & Co. KG has developed own safety solutions for all turbine types. wpd windmanager is designing these solutions in-house and will then commission the individual protective measures to a steelwork company for production.
“We are focusing primarily on mechanical burglary protection systems, among them e.g. veneers for filter inlets or special locking systems for doors”, says Philipp Lüers, Technical Management at wpd windmanager GmbH & Co. KG. The advantages of mechanical solutions are obvious: No unnecessary follow-up costs will arise for on-going maintenance or monitoring and compared to electronic solutions, these measures for burglary protection are accepted by most insurance companies. Furthermore, the use of galvanized and powder-coated materials guarantees for a long life-time. Since the preventive protection measures were introduced, the number of burglaries at the approximately 2,000 wind turbines being supervised by wpd windmanager has decreased significantly.