EDPR NA teams up with Brüel & Kjær Vibro for monitoring US wind farms

EDPR NA, headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a subsidiary of the European based EDP Renováveis (EDPR) and the parent company Energias de Portugal (EDP). EDPR is the world’s third largest producer of wind energy with an installed capacity of 8.5 GW (5000+ wind turbines).

Brüel & Kjær Vibro is responsible for the supply and retrofit installation of condition monitoring systems on the drivetrain and tower of 391 GE and Suzlon wind turbines located in the central and western US. Initially, Brüel & Kjær Vibro will perform all monitoring, diagnostic and reporting functions, however, the VibroSuite software will be installed on EDPR NA servers to enable their diagnostic team to simultaneously leverage the diagnostics done by Brüel & Kjær Vibro and learn to use the system. Eventually EDPR will assume all surveillance activities, using VibroSuite as the monitoring platform.

The frame agreement for these seven wind farms was based in part on the successful results Brüel & Kjær Vibro already achieved by monitoring several EDPR NA owned wind farms in the US. “As a major supplier of wind energy, the reliability and efficiency of our plants is very important to us” says Mr. Brian Hayes, Executive VP from EDPR NA. “We selected Brüel & Kjær Vibro because of their successful track record in working with several manufacturers and they provide a range of services that meet our requirements.” Other factors that contributed to selecting Brüel & Kjær Vibro include:

• Local support office in Houston, Texas

• VibroSuite monitoring software has powerful functionality, but is easy to use

• Possibility for third party monitoring systems to be accessed by VibroSuite

• EDPR NA has full control over the monitoring data

Torben Ekvall, president of Brüel & Kjær Vibro, sums it up by saying “We are very excited about this opportunity. This relationship benefits both companies. The additional turbines will add to our expertise in delivering actionable information to customers, such as maintenance recommendations with greater lead time. EDPR NA will also benefit from this plus the fact of having one system, not several, when evaluating their fleet.”