Renewable Energy
On-line monitoring of wind turbines
Remote monitoring systems deployed across three wind farms operated by Guohua Energy Investment Company in China.
Los sistemas de monitorización remota instalados en tres granjas eólicas operadas en China por Guohua Energy Investment Company.
Die Einführung von Remote Monitoring Systemen bei drei Windparks der Guohua Energy Investment Company in China.
W
hen the fourth biggest wind farm operator in China increases its installed capacity by 50 per cent within one year, that
indicates a company that knows its business. And one of the business aspects that all wind farm operators need to take care of is ‘turbine reliability’ – keeping the turbines turning as much as possible and keeping maintenance activities down to a minimum. Reduced or controlled maintenance is
always a valuable contribution to bottom line profitability, but when you have got 2000MW of installed capacity, the target by end 2010 for Guohua Energy Investment Company, based in Beijing, China, then you are talking about huge amounts of money.
With a few different turbine designs and sizes out in the field he needed the best possible way to get reliable and regular information about the general condition of selected turbines of these designs and types. At the same time he wanted identify any typical negative trends that might occur in the various, but differing, field operating conditions that the turbines would be deployed to. Not being satisfied with his previous assessment process of only using temperature readings of gearbox oil and generator bearing housings, he wanted to investigate on-line monitoring, where vibration signals from critical components are collected 24 hours a day and analysed to determine exactly if and where problems are developing, and how severe any problems were. Tis type of monitoring would also provide valuable knowledge that could allow critical maintenance to be planned and avoid unexpected and very costly breakdowns. He knew that this type of condition monitoring is widely used in USA, Europe, Australia, etc. His first step was to make a deep investigation of what technology was available and the quality and knowledge of the suppliers. Tese investigations covered all the key suppliers of such technology but contacts with other wind farm operators in China quickly brought him to consider SKF and their turbine monitoring system for further discussions. “Of course I knew of SKF,” says Mr Zhou,
Fig.
1.Multi-parameter monitoring maintains watch on Guohua’s turbine machinery.
Tat is why Mr Zhou Weihua, Deputy General Manager of the Production Department, took a decision in 2008 to evaluate his maintenance strategy and the technology to be applied within that strategy. A critical decision was to look for the most reliable and experienced way to determine the health of his turbines in the fastest and most effective way.
“they are the number one bearing specialist in the world with expert knowledge in many industries over many years in many countries, also here in China. And I had heard of the SKF WindCon turbine monitoring system but had never used it before. After direct contact with SKF, I heard that they had recently been successful with remote on- line monitoring, where data from the monitored turbine in the wind farm were transmitted by Internet to their specialists for analysis. “In order to get first hand experience of their
remote on-line capability I visited their Intelligence Centre Wind (ICW), their major wind turbine diagnostic centre in Hamburg, Germany.” At the time of Mr Zhou’s visit the SKF ICW
in Hamburg was receiving and processing data from more than 600 turbines from across Europe and also from USA.
www.engineerlive.com 53
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68