Onshore wind turbines are usually located in remote areas. Key systems such as the brakes are inside the nacelle at the top of the tower, which can be 100 metres high. As a result, equipment is hard to access, and often has to be serviced at height.
To help operators of onshore wind turbines, Altra Renewables provides 24/7 smart monitoring solutions that combine IIoT and data mining technologies to improve turbine uptime.
A suite of sensors monitoring the braking system provides data on a variety of parameters such as system pressure, brake pad wear, brake position, brake piston, brake fluid levels and temperature. This data is then uploaded to the cloud, where big data analytics is carried out by artificial intelligence (AI) to provide accurate diagnosis on the condition of key components, and crucially, to predict any potential reliability risks well in advance of failure.
Consequently, operators can eliminate unforeseen breakdowns and their costly repercussions. More than that, data insights can inform long-term preventative maintenance strategy, ensuring that particular brake components can be highlighted for repair or replacement at the optimum time. The system can even prioritise maintenance tasks can be ordered in terms of time criticality.
The IIoT solution can be installed on any existing or new Svendborg Brakes system for permanent condition monitoring. The hardware required consists of either the in-house developed Svendborg Brakes Gateway or the SOBO iQ (Soft Braking Option) braking system, both in collaboration with a high security cloud gateway for a secure digital connection.
If a non-permanent condition monitoring solution is needed, such as for commissioning or troubleshooting, the Universal Control (UC) Case, developed by Svendborg Brakes, provides this functionality. Contained in a compact, lightweight case, the UCCase can remotely access data from wind turbines and enable direct online intervention from technicians to aid maintenance work. The UCCase uploads data to the Cloud to allow in-depth analysis of the braking system. The tool is suitable for use on all Svendborg Brakes standard and SOBO braking systems.