Renewable NRG Systems (RNRG) says a site-wide installation of its TurbinePhD condition monitoring system has been completed at the Grant County Wind Farm in Minnesota.
Originally constructed in 2010 and owned by Aspenall Energies, the 21 MW project comprises 10 2.1 MW Suzlon S88 wind turbines.
TurbinePhD is an automated, vibration-based solution that can provide timely diagnosis of asset health before secondary damage is caused, explains RNRG.
Further, says the company, the system’s automated analysis classifies the health of all turbine drivetrain components, and alert management allows users to handle all alerts in one place and track who acknowledges and clears issues. The fleet view allows operators to assess the health of all wind farms at a glance, and graphical health alerts highlight those that need attention. At the wind farm level, users can see which turbines have new alerts or view and download charts of the most critical faults on the farm.
The company notes that the Grant County project’s wind resource was also originally measured using RNRG’s met masts and instrumentation.
“It’s a remote site, located at a two-hour drive from the Suzlon service center, and depending on weather conditions, it can be completely inaccessible for major servicing,” says John Ugland, RNRG’s technical account manager. “That’s why having TurbinePhD in place is so important. It will offer the means to deliver the proactive maintenance planning that is needed.”
Suzlon, which provides long-term operations and maintenance for the project, installed the CMS across the entire site and will perform the ensuing monitoring work.
RNRG, which designs and manufactures TurbinePhD, will provide ongoing technical support to Suzlon and Aspenall.
