SPONSORS OF THE OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE FEATURE
A REVIEW OF CONDITION
MONITORING AND THE PROGRESSION TO PROGNOSTIC HEALTH MANAGEMENT
THE WIND TURBINE MARKET The success of the wind turbine industry depends on three vital components:
1 Current and future profitability 2 Income from electricity sales and subsidy
3 Operational expenditure
Current and future profitability is controlled by the cost of capital, which is largely out of the control of the turbine owner. Rates of income are fixed by markets, which again the owner has little or no control over.
The operational costs however, can be managed through the selection of an appropriate maintenance regime; thus allowing some control over outgoings. Therefore, the control a wind farm owner has over their asset’s profitability is directly linked to the selection and execution of an appropriate repair and maintenance regime.
FUTURE PROGNOSTIC HEALTH MONITORING OF WIND TURBINES The consumer electronics market offers a broad scope of varying technologies within a common platform for ease of integration.
A reliable and affordable sensor toolset exists for many asset monitoring applications, especially those which require a more holistic monitoring approach. PHM systems offer the advantages of monitoring multiple parts of a complex application using a sole monitoring system. The flowchart summarises how PHM using a fusion based approach can improve the analysis of sub and complete systems.
DOWNTIME IS EXPENSIVE Downtime on large offshore turbines is expensive, and can result in lost income of around £18,000/turbine/day. An extensive study of 1500 wind turbines by ISET found varying reliability across mechanical and electrical system with, in general, more faults in electrical systems than mechanical. Today, maintenance is still reactive with no true real-time prediction of remaining operational life of sub-systems within the turbine.
So how can future holistic prognostic health monitoring (PHM) systems, utilising commercial electronics, be utilised to ensure reliability of wind turbines?
Utilising algorithms within centralised systems or front end within microcontrollers or FPGAs, PHM systems can provide quick, reliable results that can be tailored to the requirements of the specific end user.
WORKING WITH INDUSTRY – REDUCING COSTS Repairing the cables is very costly, with maintenance vessels and the associated support cost in the region of £30,000 per day. If companies can anticipate cable failures before they happen, they can undertake planned work, which is much more cost effective.
The recently announced intelligent monitoring system to safeguard underwater cable networks is an example of a PHM being applied to the renewable energy sector. Funded by Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution, which is part of SSE, the system could reduce the energy company’s costs and help keep customer bills down.
60% of subsea cable failure is due to wear and tear, a problem understood by Dr. David Flynn, energy team leader at Heriot-Watt University. Their system will provide constant, real-time updates on the condition of subsea cables, allowing for planned maintenance, rather than just waiting until a part of the system fails. This could be the difference between affordable maintenance and expensive responses to unexpected failure, and will help minimise supply interruptions.
Furthermore, the intelligent systems will use off-the-shelf components, including the sort of movement sensing technology used in automotive airbags. The sensors will be mounted around the cables using a collar, which will be fitted at intervals over the entire sub-sea circuit length. This cleary demontrates the ability to provide cost effective and stable monitoring via consumer electronic technology,
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www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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