By David Clark, President CMS Wind The purpose of condition monitoring is to predict failures. Vibration condition monitoring, when configured correctly (and most are not), gives a lead time to failures from 6 to 24 months on major drivetrain components. You may ask: How is that possible? It turns out that each component emits a…
Assessing condition-based monitoring and preventative turbine maintenance
Soon after a wind farm’s commissioning, it is critical to adopt a cost-effective operations and maintenance (O&M) strategy to maximizing the project’s long-term profitability and return on investment. Condition monitoring is a typical O&M tool that helps wind-farm owners and operators track the health of turbine components and related electrical systems. Its purpose is to assess…
Myths and facts about condition-monitoring systems for wind turbines
Unscheduled maintenance and turbine downtime are costly issues in the wind industry. Condition-monitoring systems (CMS) offer one answer to help detect component damage or failures before they become serious problems. In this WindTalk podcast, CMS Wind President David Clark discusses three basic approaches to CMS. He also deciphers facts from some common CMS myths to…