Renewable Energy
the wind farm site managers and Mr Zhou. Te reports contained the detailed vibration spectra for the key components being monitored, together with a brief statement that summarised the analysis of the data in terms of the condition of the component. But there was also a ‘report grid’ that indicated the components being monitored and each one had one of three colours; green, yellow or red to give immediate indication of the condition, with green being OK, yellow being a slight to major deviation from the ‘acceptable levels or trends’, and red being something requiring immediate attention. Te first results were good, because Mr Zhou could
Fig. 2. Close study of vibration spectra determines machinery and component condition.
“In Hamburg I saw examples of almost all the capabilities of a SKF WinCon system, because there were so many systems deployed in so many wind farms. Te level of detail that the system could give was clearly demonstrated, and the explanations by the people making the analysis clearly indicated that they knew all about wind turbines and the critical machinery. Te Hamburg visit gave me the confidence to set up a field trial on some turbines in Guohua wind farms in 2009.”
Field trials Te field trial involved 11 SKF WindCon systems to be deployed across three wind farms; one in Jiangsu province, one in Shadong province and one in Inner Mongolia. Around the time SKF were installing their systems in the Guohua turbines SKF had opened a Remote Condition Monitoring Centre in Shanghai.
‘see’ for the first time what was really happening with his critical machinery. Te SKF WindCon systems delivered the vibration spectra, similar to those he saw in Hamburg, and the SKF experts in Shanghai interpreted the data in terms of the condition of the bearings, potential misalignment, gear damage, etc.
Fig.
3.Guohua is part of an energy investment company.
During the six months to January 2010, the SKF WindCons provided good information on the turbines allowing Mr Zhou to determine if and what maintenance would be required. In that period one of the installed SKF WindCons identified a severely damaged generator gearbox bearing at the Inner Mongolia wind farm. “Te SKF WindCons did their job,” said Mr Zhou,
“they kept me informed and the early identification of the severity of the damaged bearing in Inner Mongolia was enough to allow us to plan for replacement at minimum cost and disturbance to the planned electricity supply from the turbine”. Since the tests Guohua have installed another 58
Fig. 4. The first turbines were monitored remotely in SKF’s Shanghai facility.
Having SKF experts so close was an added benefit to Mr Zhou and he was anxious to get the systems operating and see what the results would be. Te data was collected on a local server at each wind farm and transmitted to an SKF server in Shanghai for analysis. Any immediate emergency situation would be reported at once but an ‘emergency situation’ was not detected at start up of the monitoring, and a report was issued once per month to
54
www.engineerlive.com
SKF WindCons and a further 280 have been ordered for new turbines going into service in 2010. Tis is the start of a mass application of remote monitoring and Mr. Zhou says “we have some knowledge regarding vibration analysis within our own maintenance teams, but I intend to build up more knowledge within the Guohua organisation and set up our own remote monitoring centre in Beijing for our turbines. A lot of this knowledge and assistance will come from SKF as they provide us with their remote diagnostic monitoring during the coming years.” ●
For more information, visit
www.skf.com
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