SECTOR FOCUS: TURBINE OILS How to have your cake
and eat it: the next evolution in wind turbine observations and measurements
John Coultate, Head of Product Development, ONYX InSight
The wind sector is primed for rapid growth, as digitalisation becomes more widely adopted by owners and operators. Lubrication monitoring in the 21st century will be online, connected, and real-time. But to capitalise on this opportunity, owners and operators must look to combine valuable data-streams to unlock further savings.
This article looks at how the increasing affordability and practicality of online oil sensing has led to a step change in the way oil data is collected and used compared to outdated and insufficient offline sampling practices, and opens up new possibilities to combine with vibration data to produce the most powerful and accurate analyses of wind turbine health yet.
In recent years, online oil sensor technology and vibration monitoring hardware have become much more affordable, meaning that both techniques can be routinely combined to inform smart observations and measurements (O&M) strategies. Owners and operators are empowered to make informed decisions to proactively manage issues as they arise by detecting problems at an early stage, reducing the risk of costly damage.
In the right hands, the benefits from combining oil 30 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.161 FEBRUARY 2021
condition monitoring and vibration data goes beyond the sum of their parts. When these streams are analysed in combination with real world engineering expertise, owners and operators can benefit from over 17% savings from total OPEX costs.
There is no doubt that online sensors offer significant benefits. Rather than collecting data manually – often too infrequently to draw any useful conclusions, online oil condition monitoring provides a continuous, real-time stream of data points, allowing trends to be identified confidently. High quality, online oil sensor data enables monitoring engineers to make key decisions and means cutting-edge AI algorithms can be applied where previously no suitable data existed. This is not “data for data’s sake” – this is the targeted application of sensors to enable high value operations and maintenance decision making.
This potent combination of data sources enables more effective predictive maintenance to deliver longer lead times for owners and operators, providing up to 24 months’ notice for potential problems across their wind fleets. They can use this information to optimise procurement, logistics and operations, cutting 30% from their O&M budgets.
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