Operations & maintenance
Being able to predict a failure months ahead is especially useful for offshore wind, as components cannot be easily replaced.
For example, sensors can examine oil within the turbine, allowing operators to inspect the wear metals within it like copper or steel and from there know where that wear is coming from. The levels at which those wear metals are present, and whether that number is increasing or decreasing, can tell you more. And when combined with vibrational data, or indeed, any of the other sources of data that predictive analysts can use, this can provide a far more authoritative conclusion. That could be used to judge whether the extra wear on a turbine is due to turbulence, or a failing component, or merely it’s location in relation to other turbines on a wind farm. Of course, this can only happen if data is shared and integrated with other data silos, providing greater understanding to the operator. However, many manufacturers and operators are hesitant to transition to a non-siloed approach, for a variety of reasons. “They’ll give you aggregated data about the way a machine is running, because they’re concerned about maybe giving away intellectual rights,” Hall explains. “It makes some manufacturers defensive about data sharing.”
This hesitancy is understandable – most companies would think twice before sharing sensitive IP for fear that it they would be ceding control or giving away too much understanding about how their assets operate. And, of course, this would also open them up to greater risk of being targeted for cyberattacks – a problem that many industries are grappling with today. While digitalisation offers many benefits, operators should also consider the potential risk and ensure that they take the necessary precautions. “Imagine you were able to shut down a wind farm – just look at what happened to Colonial Pipeline,” Hall says, referring to the April 2021 cyberattack that took down the largest fuel pipeline in the US and led to shortages across the country’s east coast. Colonial paid the hackers, an affiliate of Russia- linked cybercrime group DarkSide, a ransom in the region of $4.4m shortly after the hack. “That doesn’t mean we can’t [digitalise the industry],” Hall adds, “but we have to be much more careful about how we do it. And that’s to do with the maturing of the wind industry.”
World Wind Technology /
www.worldwind-technology.com
And as the industry matures and advances, some developments will serve to drive home the need for digitalisation even further. The ever-increasing size of wind turbines and their resulting output, from GE’s 14MW Haliade-X prototype in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to Vestas’ planned 15MW that will go up next year, or MingYang’s upcoming 16MW behemoth, are promising steps forward for the wind industry, but present problems of their own. Only four years ago, in 2017, the maximum capacity for an offshore turbine was 8MW. As more and more power production is concentrated on larger turbines, reducing the number of platforms required in an area, any potential loss in operation time comes at a much higher cost. “You’ve got a much more expensive asset that you need to keep eyes on,” Hall notes. “If you lose one of these bigger turbines, the cost of maintenance is a lot higher. To mitigate this, [operators] will use digitalisation and sensors much more carefully than they’ve done in the past.”
Change in the air
Both Hall and Corné agree, however, that this attitude of hesitancy is starting to change, as more and more operators come to understand the benefits that a non-siloed, digitalised operation can offer. “A few years ago, I would have said that OEMs were very protective of the data,” Corné notes. “But now that’s opening up – there is a sense that the industry needs to collaborate. So, I think it’s a very, very positive direction that the industry is going in.” One of the main contributing factors to this change is that people are coming in from other industries that have already implemented digitalisation on a wide scale, who have the skills and understanding to feel comfortable integrating the data. That’s helping to shift the opinion of the industry in digitalisation’s favour, and increasingly operators have come to accept and embrace the technology, which will help the industry hone its efficiencies for the future and the challenges ahead.
“The wind industry is full of people who are very progressive and open to new technologies,” says Hall. “Right now, there aren’t enough of them – but I think it’s just a matter of time.” ●
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