Designing for reliability in wind turbine condition monitoring systems

For wind turbine condition-based maintenance to be economically advantageous over the more conventional periodic based maintenance, high reliability is required of the systems which carry out the monitoring. The use of condition monitoring systems (CMS) is becoming common place in offshore wind turbines, due to the high cost associated with maintenance; however for onshore wind turbines the benefits aren’t quite so obvious. Still, for both onshore and offshore wind turbine condition-based maintenance, it is essential that these systems can operate for long periods of time providing an accurate diagnosis of the state of the wind turbine’s health. Through the build and installation of one CMS and the design, build and installation of another the author aims to share experience and lessons learnt to aid the design of any new CMS. A brief description will be given of the first system installed followed by the issues that were experienced following its installation. The author will then go on to discuss the design of a new CMS which has been installed in a Vestas V42 wind turbine and the improvements that were made to it to increase its reliability and ruggedness.