Product Pick of the Week - New monitoring and maintenance technology from Siemens

Siemens is testing a new monitoring and maintenance technology which could soon be used to keep wind turbines turning.

According to Siemens, the technology was developed by its researchers from Corporate Technology in China. It can reduce the costs of operation and allow more efficient running of turbines.

The Siemens solution consists of a single algorithm which monitors all the turbine parts and gives the operator early warning when a part needs to be replaced.

Siemens says the reliability, easy operation and price advantages offered by the software could help to increase wind power output in China to 100 gigawatts by 2020 as planned. The technology is to undergo testing in China in 2009.

Wind turbines are continuously subjected to heavy loads, and repairing them is expensive. Until now, costly movement sensors have been used to monitor moving turbine parts that are subject to wear and report irregularities to a control centre.

Engineers have to analyse the data and service the sensors. That generates relatively high costs. The new solution uses the existing technology in the motor of the pitch system, which controls the turbine’s rotor blades and output. With Siemens turbines, highly sensitive sensors from the Simotion line monitor the critical parts and perform standard measurements of the electric currents in the motor.

The Siemens researchers in Beijing discovered that the currents change if the wind turbine isn’t running properly. The software uses the precise measurements as a basis to develop an algorithm that predicts the level of wear of the individual components.