Wind turbine condition monitoring

Wind turbine condition monitoring
With the increasing demand for wind energy, reducing operation and maintenance (O&M) costs are becoming top priorities
It is expensive to visit wind turbines for maintenance and repair because of environmental conditions, the remote location of wind farms and the height of the nacelle. In addition, wind turbine components are designed to save weight, increasing the stress-induced failure. As the demand for wind energy is growing, reducing operation and maintenance (O&M) costs as well as increasing reliability are becoming priorities. Current O&M costs prohibit faster adoption of wind energy, and slow global acceptance of wind energy. The low-cost online condition monitoring systems predict failures, forecast maintenance activities, and lower O&M costs.
Need for condition monitoringThe current trend is using larger wind turbines in remote locations, which are increasingly offshore, for optimal wind conditions. Both the size and location factors have led to maintenance challenges which are unique compared to traditional power generation systems:

No walk-around maintenance: Unlike other power generation equipment, walk-around maintenance isn’t feasible because reaching wind turbine is difficult and expensive.
High-maintenance costs: Maintenance costs are high because of need for an expensive large crane to lift needed parts to the nacelle.
Higher propensity for failure: Gearboxes and related mechanical components are designed to save weight, leaning toward a higher probability of stress-induced failure.
High-mechanical stress: Constantly changing loads and variable operating conditions create high-mechanical stress on wind turbines, and the high degree of stress demands a high degree of maintenance.
The wind energy industry uses a reactive maintenance approach or run-to-failure maintenance which is the most costly operation and maintenance (O&M) practice.
All of these factors raise O&M cost, which affects the cost of energy (COE) metric, used for evaluating the project feasibility and return on investment.

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