Abstract
This paper investigated wind turbine degradation quantitatively by analyzing the short-term operation records of the Shinan Wind Power Plant. Instead of a capacity factor which is needed to be normalized its variability due to monthly wind speed change, this study suggests an analysis method by taking the difference between the theoretical power output calculated from the nacelle wind speed and actual power output as the quantitative index of performance degradation. For three-year SCADA data analysis of the Shinan Wind Power Plant, it was confirmed that power output degradation rate of 0.54% per year. This value is within the average reduction rate 0.4%/year~0.9%/year of normalized capacity factor of the onshore wind power plants in U.K. and Denmark; however, lower than the rate 2%/year of Canadian wind power plants.