Wind Farm Operators Need to Invest in Disruptive Technologies To Avoid Wasting Thousands on O&M - ONYX InSight

Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) have radically changed the return on investment model for turbine condition monitoring in the United States, helping wind farm owners make significant OPEX savings. By cutting the cost of condition monitoring systems (CMS), low-cost MEMS sensors have helped wind farm owners to improve operational planning, cut unscheduled maintenance, and make OPEX savings of up to 8% each year, according to ONYX InSight

First introduced by ONYX InSight into the wind energy industry, MEMS sensors are used in CMS hardware to measure and report on vibration, temperature and oil condition in the drive train. With billions of MEMS sensors manufactured every year for use in equipment from mobile phones and pacemakers to automotive and aviation safety systems, the technology is low cost and highly reliable. MEMS equipped CMS have transformed the return on investment for turbine monitoring, particularly for owners of smaller or older models. Lowering the cost of CMS hardware has allowed owners to refine repair and maintenance strategies to realise greater OPEX savings.

Ashley Crowther, Global VP of Sales, at ONYX InSight said, "ONYX InSight's ecoCMS monitoring equipment has convinced operators to look again at the financials of CMS. Built with MEMS sensors and IOT technology rather than legacy technology such as piezoelectric accelerometers and rotating hard drives, which has historically been too expensive to justify, the disruptive hardware is transforming the CM market, making fleet owners sit up and take notice of the financial benefits predictive maintenance can bring."  

The latest CMS hardware collect a wide range of wind turbine performance metrics, allowing wind farm operators to identify and confirm faults much earlier, and to act preventatively to save money on repairs and site visits. The low-cost technology can benefit older and smaller turbine models significantly, where condition-based maintenance strategies have long been seen as uneconomic. Across 500 CMS installations recently carried out by

ONYX InSight for a multi-brand fleet, more than fifty turbines were identified as in need of repairs that had previously gone undiscovered by the operator.

Crowther continued, "we live in a data rich world. And to realise the advantages of all that data, we must be able to capture, process and interpret it effectively. By reducing the cost of data capture, recent advancements in CMS technology will help more wind farm operators improve their operations and the profitability of the energy they produce."

ONYX InSight will be at Windpower in Houston, TX from 21 May to 23 May, where you can find them at Booth 3445. Ashley Crowther will also be speaking on the benefits of high-quality unfiltered operational data at Fast Track on Thursday 23 May at 9.45am.

ONYX InSight | www.onyxinsight.com