Technical notes

A wind farm is usually operated from a site control room with SCADA system access to each turbine. There are local HMI displays and data historians at each wind farm. Specific sets of data are also archived in a central database at the OEM’s/End User’s site.
Because uptime is so critical, manufacturers of wind turbines offer their units with a condition monitoring system.

A typical condition monitoring system may include a 10 – 20 channel vibration monitoring system that monitors vibration on the main drive shaft bearings, on each gearbox and on each generator bearing. The system may also include an oil-particle counter for the gearbox.

The vibration monitoring system should seamlessly integrate primary data into the site’s existing SCADA systems and provide detailed data including spectrum analysis for trending and longer term predictive maintenance purposes. The system must work properly with SQL database servers and be easily expanded to match an expanding installed base of wind turbines.