Boosting wind power with SKF condition monitoring

Wind power is on the rise and is an increasingly important part of the energy mix. In fact, the UK generated more electricity from wind farms than it did from gas-fired power plants in the first quarter of 2023, the first time this has happened.

 

The rise in wind power relies squarely on wind turbines and their ability to generate electricity smoothly and efficiently. This encompasses a multitude of factors, including design, engineering and operations & maintenance (O&M).

 

A condition monitoring system (CMS) is a well-established technology for maintaining performance on wind turbines, but this was not always recognized. “The use of CMS within the wind turbine sector has now reached a significant level of maturity,” says Rusmir Bajric, lead expert in CMS at RWE Offshore Wind. “However, I remember a time when it was questioned whether such systems are even needed.”

 

That, he says, is now history. Collecting data is vital to the smooth running of a wind farm at sea because of the benefits it can bring.

 

“Assets are large and any downtime is costly,” he says.

 

RWE has deployed more than 1,000 of SKF’s IMx units globally across its fleet of wind turbines. These collect “health” data on moving parts, such as bearing vibration, temperature and other metrics. Data gathering is crucial, but it is only beneficial if it can be analysed properly.

 

“As our wind turbines portfolio has increased, so has the amount of data that we have to process,” he says. In order to raise productivity – a key factor for RWE – the company’s O&M team was requesting higher quality data. This meant more precision, using the data to predict problems more accurately. “The O&M team requires a minimum of false alarms, aiming for zero misdetection of issues if possible,” Bajric says. “However, it can be a challenge to cope with so much data and the high industry requirements.”

 

This is what the IMx units are there to do. They typically monitor components on the drivetrain, proactively looking for faults that can be corrected before they turn into problems. It is well known that maintenance accounts for a huge chunk of the cost of running a wind turbine. Minimizing this – by avoiding catastrophic failure, for example – is a critical factor behind efficient and profitable operation.