Making off-shore wind farms more reliable
It is anticipated that wind power will become increasingly important in Europe's energy portfolio. Off-shore wind farms have overcome obstacles related to aesthetics and public acceptance, but are more likely to break down than their land-based counterparts. The CONMOW project, which received backing from the EESD Programme, sought to increase the reliability of off-shore installations. In the context of the project, Gram & Juhl, a Danish engineering firm with considerable experience in wind turbine applications, developed a Turbine condition monitoring (TCM) system. The system entails installing sensors at several locations on the turbine to provide feedback on various components. The sensor data is analysed by a software application in order to provide early fault detection, thereby allowing time for intervention. The TCM system was developed to interface seamlessly with the turbine's existing Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. An initial experiment in the Netherlands was unfortunately rendered ineffective due to constraints regarding sensor placement. This issue was resolved and subsequent tests with other turbines were able to provide more valuable data. Gram & Juhl believe the TCM system has the potential to automate the monitoring of multiple off-shore wind turbines and significantly decrease non-operational time.
