CONDITION MONITORING
FEATURE SPONSOR
BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD – HOW PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE CAN DRIVE VALUE FOR THE WIND INDUSTRY
The European wind industry today faces challenges around energy and wind power costs, in light of the squeeze on operating budgets.
Typically, 75 percent of operational expenditure is related to the site’s operation and maintenance (O&M). These costs are significant, especially for offshore where the cost and availability of vessels and site access due to weather conditions are critically important, and it is therefore the role of the O&M managers to identify ways of reducing costs.
UNLOCKING THE VALUE OF BIG DATA Installing monitoring technologies on wind turbine drivetrains is a widely known way to address cost issues.
The key to enabling higher ROI in monitoring technologies is unlocking additional value from existing data sources. Vast volumes of data from condition monitoring systems (CMS), SCADA, inspections and maintenance frequently exist in ‘siloed’ systems.
It is not common practice today to process all of this within a single platform. However, only by so doing can the true value of the data be fully exploited.
GETTING THE MAINTENANCE BALANCE RIGHT
Determining the optimal maintenance strategy for a wind farm is a delicate balance between O&M costs and the potential consequential costs of any failure.
THE MAINTENANCE STRATEGY FOR A SITE GENERALLY FALLS INTO ONE OF THREE CATEGORIES… • reactive maintenance (run-to-failure) which is easy to implement but can be expensive due to high repair costs
• Preventive maintenance involves proactively replacing parts before they fail and minimises potential repair costs
• Predictive maintenance lies at the ‘sweet spot’ between preventive and reactive maintenance and can be performed as and when required, before expensive and potentially catastrophic failures occur
In order to enable predictive maintenance, wind turbine monitoring technology needs to deliver predictions of future component failures with at least 6-12 months lead- time. To do this means combining many disparate technologies including: vibration condition monitoring; oil monitoring; remaining useful life models; inspection and maintenance data and measured load data from the turbine.
Typically, each of these datasets are considered in isolation and not analysed together using a single predictive model. Only by analysing them together can the current and future health of the machinery be truly understood.
To answer these challenges, Romax has developed several specific technologies for drivetrain monitoring that help operator’s move towards a predictive maintenance strategy.
The company provides operators with a range of software and services to monitor their assets. Romax’s InSight software provides a platform for analysing data from CMS, SCADA, inspections and maintenance and utilising predictive models to provide key actionable information to O&M staff and asset managers.
Dr John Coultate Romax Technology Ltd
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www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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