Crystal Rig wind farm turbines get online condition monitoring 07 November 2012

Fred Olsen Renewables (FOR), which operates the 50MW Crystal Rig wind farm in Scotland, says that its new online condition monitoring systems have already proved their worth by picking up faults in generator bearings and identifying early problems with gears.

The company installed the systems, from bearings and condition monitoring specialist Schaeffler, on five wind turbines in May this year (2012), and will be adding another 20 later this year on the remaining turbines.

The systems continuously monitor condition of the main rotor bearings, gearbox and generators, with Schaeffler UK also providing remote monitoring services on a 24/7 basis.

They were installed on Phase 2 of the development, which will bring the total number of turbines to 25, generating a total capacity of 62.5MW from May 2007.

"We are delighted with the condition monitoring systems and remote monitoring services provided by Schaeffler," comments Stuart Naylor, operations manager at FOR UK.

"Back in September 2011, when we were looking for a suitable UK-based supplier, we found Schaeffler to be extremely professional and competitive, as well as demonstrating confidence that their system could provide us with the most suitable condition monitoring system," he continues.

"Additionally, Schaeffler offered flexible training, remote monitoring and reporting services to meet our requirement."

"On each of the five wind turbines being monitored at Crystal Rig, we've installed six vibration acceleration sensors," says Dr Steve Lacey, engineering manager at Schaeffler UK.

"One of these sensors is a special, low frequency vibration sensor that monitors the main rotor bearing, and there is also a low frequency vibration sensor on the input shaft to the gearbox.

"Two additional standard vibration acceleration sensors are installed on the power train gearbox, with a further two vibration sensors on the generators."

"Since the condition monitoring systems were installed in May, we've picked up a couple of faults in the generator bearings and identified early problems with some gears on a planetary gearbox. These faults were confirmed by FOR by using fibre optic cameras to look inside the gearbox," he concludes.

Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Schaeffler (UK) Ltd

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