Wind Power Plant
Risk profile for a wind power plant (onshore wind turbine or wind farm): the risk attributes typically assessed in underwriting and the resulting commercial insurance programme architecture.
Risk picture
A wind power plant concentrates a high sum insured into a small number of mechanically complex turbines, each combining rotating machinery, a gearbox and generator, and blades exposed to wind, lightning and icing at height. Typical loss drivers are lightning strike damage to blades and control electronics, gearbox and generator breakdown from fatigue or lubrication failure, blade or nacelle fire, and storm loads beyond design limits. Because major components such as gearboxes, generators and blades have long manufacturing lead times and are often sourced from a small number of specialised suppliers, even a single machinery breakdown can translate into a disproportionately long and costly business interruption.
Risk attributes to capture
The table below is generated from this profile’s linked risk attributes and grouped by category; see the individual attribute pages for underwriting logic, evidence requirements and mitigation measures.
Coverage architecture
Property all risks cover insures the turbine, tower, foundation and substation equipment against material damage, complemented by general liability for third-party injury or property damage such as blade throw or ice fall. Employee accident cover is compulsory in Switzerland (UVG) wherever operations and maintenance staff are employed. Business interruption cover, aligned to the same perils and indemnity period as the property section, addresses lost feed-in revenue during repair and replacement, which can extend well beyond typical indemnity periods given long-lead-time turbine components; machinery breakdown cover is relevant as an optional extension for the gearbox, generator and other rotating equipment where mechanical or electrical breakdown is not otherwise captured.
Prevention
Loss prevention priorities are a lightning protection system engineered to the turbine manufacturer’s specification, a condition-monitoring and scheduled maintenance programme covering gearbox oil analysis and vibration monitoring, a documented strategy for critical spare parts (gearbox, generator, main bearing) given long replacement lead times, and a business continuity plan addressing access constraints at remote or difficult-to-reach sites.
- Kind
- Object
Risk attributes to capture
Location
- Site Access and Accessibility — Site access and accessibility describes the road, gate and internal circulation arrangements that allow emergency vehicles and personnel to reach and move around a location, and is queried in property and construction proposal forms to assess emergency response capability.
Operations
- Machinery Fleet Age — Machinery fleet age records the average or maximum age of the production and processing equipment at an insured site, as ageing machinery carries a higher probability of breakdown and consequential business interruption.
- Planned Maintenance Programme — The planned maintenance programme attribute records whether an insured operates a documented, scheduled preventive maintenance regime for its machinery and equipment, as opposed to purely reactive repair, which is a key predictor of breakdown frequency.
- Shutdown and Start-up Frequency — Shutdown and start-up frequency records how often production equipment is deliberately taken offline and restarted, since these transitional states carry a disproportionately high share of machinery breakdown and fire losses compared with steady-state running.
Business interruption/Supply chain
- Critical Spare Parts Stock — Critical spare parts stock records the extent to which components with long replacement lead times for bottleneck machinery are held in stock, contractually reserved or otherwise secured, as queried in machinery and business interruption proposal forms.
- Single-Source Suppliers — Single-source suppliers records whether the insured procures a critical raw material, component or service from only one supplier or production site, with no qualified alternative available on short notice, as queried in contingent business interruption proposal forms.
- Recovery Time Objective — Recovery time objective (RTO) records the target maximum time within which a critical process, system or facility must be restored after a disruption, as defined in the insured's business continuity plan and queried in business interruption proposal forms.