Most modern WTGs are now manufactured with some form of integrated monitoring system. Such systems are commonly based on vibration monitoring of the WTG drive-train as well as temperature of bearings, windings etc. Additionally, several emerging monitoring systems like lubricating oil particle content and optical blade strain measurement system are commercially available. MIMTIS, our machine-to-machine (M2M) platform allows remote monitoring of these measurement system data. The quality of information provided by MIMTIS, as well as the data analysis allows users to predict these failures and schedule maintenance before failures occur. Several such systems can be integrated with MIMTIS platform, however temperature and vibration presently are the main tools that are commercially feasible to implement on large scale.

With MIMTIS, current WTG monitoring system can be combined with several different commercially available networking technologies like GPRS, Ethernet, WiFi, Zigbee, PST and Satellite to easily transmit information about monitored parameters, alarm conditions and status of WTG. Wireless communications technologies like GPRS has extended the range of data acquisition far beyond what is practical using wired communications. As shown in the figure below the data from the sensors and devices is acquired by a network enabled RTU. In case of wired RTU a local MIMTIS server is required to be installed, which can be installed on an industrial computer or desktop connected to the wired network.

The data acquired by the RTU is sent wirelessly or through the MIMTIS local site server to the central server. Users can log onto the central server for their company’s web HMI to access monitored data. HMI is used to view data (in form of graphs, charts, gauges), check if alarms have been triggered or to gauge WTG component failure risk conditions. The data can also be passed to other applications like SCADA using Interface API’s.

The best procedure to implement MIMTIS monitoring and deriving business benefit is:

• Evaluate and identify the key monitoring metrics that will contribute to business results. Start with monitoring of few parameters. The most significant operational failures are associated with the gearbox and generator components, the gearbox bearing problems are the most prevalent. High capital cost, long lead-time for replacement, large physical size and weight, position in nacelle at top of tower and adverse weather conditions make gearbox monitoring the most popular metrics.

• Monitoring effectiveness lies in the system’s ability to reliably estimate the components failure risk. The failure risk can be estimated by evaluating the probability of an alarm condition transitioning to a failure state and the impact of failure. Once calculated, the magnitude of risk for each alarm can be used as an indicator to determine how urgently repair work should be scheduled for the WTG. Hence the scheduled maintenance policy can be slowly replaced with a risk based policy.

Benefits of MIMTIS based monitoring system are:

• Remote monitoring reduces need for frequent site service inspections. This optimizes wind farm service management.
• Early-damage-warning reduces component failure and downtime.
• For key components like the gearbox, shifting from scheduled to risk based maintenance helps in better maintenance planning.
• The data acquired can be used to evaluate how turbines react to specific operating conditions. This information can be very useful for root cause analysis.
• MIMTIS platform is flexible enough to support a range of sensors and devices to support your various data acquisition requirements. Our engineers can help design the system with required sensors and hardware.

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