Advanced turbine monitoring

Amidst the challenges, there are many reasons to be optimistic about the future of wind energy. The EU has taken a proactive stance by publishing its Wind Power Package, a strategic initiative aimed at fortifying the supply chain and bolstering the industry’s resilience. Merger and acquisition (M&A) deals persist as utilities and fund managers strategically pursue expansion opportunities, indicative of the sector’s continued appeal to investors. Furthermore, the COP28 summit has taken sustainability to centre stage on the world’s environmental agenda, which is likely to accelerate the global investment in renewables.

However, despite this optimism, there must be an acknowledgment of the challenges that continue to confront the wind energy sector. The disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have severely impacted the industry, causing manufacturing disruptions and impeding the flow of the supply chain. More recently, inflation has added another layer of complexity, further stretching renewable energy supply chains to their limits and increasing costs for asset owners and operators. Alongside an increasing shortage of skilled personnel to operate these assets, these challenges underscore the sector’s vulnerability to external shocks and emphasise the need for innovative strategies and resilient practices to navigate the evolving energy landscape.

In this combination of opportunities and challenges, the wind energy sector finds itself at a critical point in its history. Advanced monitoring has become crucial for navigating unpredictable market conditions and can no longer be seen as a luxury, but an essential component of wind asset management. It has evolved beyond optional enhancements to become a cornerstone of effective asset oversight. Despite its growing significance and technological maturity, the industry has yet to unlock the full potential of advanced turbine monitoring often due to a lack of understanding of technologies available outside of basic supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) systems. The subsequent sections detail the current landscape, and the benefits that can be derived from more advanced monitoring practices across various critical areas.

The current wind turbine monitoring landscape

Turbine monitoring, a critical component of wind energy asset management, relies on a diverse set of approaches. The industry’s reliance on SCADA alarms is a foundational practice, where predefined thresholds trigger alerts in response to deviations in turbine performance. These alarms detect significant irregularities that indicate that a system is operating outside of an acceptable range.

Building on this foundation, post-processing of threshold-based SCADA alarms can add a layer of sophistication to monitoring practices. This involves linking SCADA alarms with their impact on power generation or known failure modes, providing a more nuanced understanding of how deviations could potentially affect overall turbine health. It is a crucial step towards predictive analysis, allowing opera-tors to anticipate and address issues before they escalate, although this methodology is sensitive to deficiencies in the underlying SCADA alarm logic, which often will give inadequate forewarning of degrading condition. Application of entirely new logic and data science to raw SCADA data is increasingly being seen to be a more effective way to timely insights that enable proactive maintenance.

The installation of non-OEM hardware-based solutions can further enhance operations and maintenance (O&M) practices. Vibration-based monitoring, as well as other hardware-based solutions, introduce additional layers of insight. These services capture data beyond the capabilities of traditional monitoring systems and have been proven to provide great insight for failure modes which are able to be identified through changes in vibration. This technology offers a glimpse into the future of wind energy, where advanced monitoring becomes the backbone for sustainable and efficient operations.

Advanced O&M to tackle future challenges

As the wind power industry evolves, the necessity for forward-thinking approaches has become increasingly apparent. This evolution is characterised by a landscape marked with escalating competition and the consolidation of the market, necessitating a paradigm shift in operational strategies. It has become critical for operators to draw insights from industries with mature condition monitoring practices if they want to remain competitive and profitable in the volatile wind energy sector.

A pivotal lesson from these mature industries is the need for scalable, fleet-wide solutions. Success hinges on the adoption of technologies that not only predict turbine degradation but also seamlessly integrate with upstream supply chain systems so as to facilitate and potentially one day, automate, inventory management/ordering. This approach is instrumental in minimising downtime suffered by operators currently due to long component lead times during turbine failures.

As wind turbines age, reliability issues are surfacing, raising concerns about the sector’s ability to maintain optimal performance and longevity. For instance, Siemens Energy, a prominent player in the wind turbine business, has acknowledged reliability challenges and outlined a plan for €400 million in cost cuts. This announcement came after the company’s wind turbine business faced significant losses, prompting a €15 billion government-backed bailout after turbine failures. This news is a stark reminder that there must be urgency for the wind industry to address reliability concerns head-on and implement proactive measures to ensure the sustainability of wind energy projects.

Looking ahead, a challenge that a maturing wind industry will face increasingly is that of determining the point at which a site should be repowered/replanted/refurbished. The presence of advanced analytics through the lifetime of the turbines will not only ensure the assets reach this stage in the best possible condition, but will also support in the decision-making process, providing accurate generation and maintenance cost predictions in the years ahead. Providing these insights in a way that easily facilitates decisions with a minimum requirement intermediary support is a challenge for predictive analytics software suppliers. The key lies in embracing not only forward-thinking O&M strategies, but also new technologies that anticipate potential issues in ageing turbines, minimising the risk of failures.

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The Spring 2024 issue of Energy Global starts with a guest comment from Field on how battery storage sites can serve as a viable solution to curtailed energy, before moving on to a regional report from Théodore Reed-Martin, Editorial Assistant, Energy Global, looking at the state of renewables in Europe. This issue also hosts an array of technical articles on electrical infrastructure, turbine and blade monitoring, battery storage technology, coatings, and more.

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