Windfair Interview with Brüel & Kjær Vibro

Brüel & Kjær Vibro provides condition monitoring to many industries. Which role does wind energy play in the portfolio of your company? How many employees do you have in that area?

Brüel & Kjær Vibro is the world’s largest independent supplier of online vibration based condition monitoring solutions. With a solid track record of more than 9,400 systems sold and 12GW wind power monitored on a daily basis, we are proud to offer tailor-made monitoring strategies that fit our client’s individual needs.

Today the wind energy market represents the largest growth area for Brüel & Kjær Vibro and for this reason we have established Diagnostic Monitoring and Service centrers in Denmark, China and in the U.S. to provide the best possible services to our clients locally and within their time zone. An additional benefit arising from the strong collaboration between our diagnostic centers in Denmark, China and the U.S. is that we are able to provide our clients with unique around the clock monitoring service. More than 75 employees around the world are dedicated to serve our wind industry clients.

Wind turbine operators have been asking for more compatability of condition monitoring systems for different turbine types for years. Has the market reacted to this call? If so, how?

The Brüel & Kjær Vibro System is capable of importing and exporting data from/to third party systems with a high level of flexibility. Our monitoring solutions can be utilized on all kinds of turbines. Some minor turbine configurations may be required but that's all. Today our fleet of monitored turbines includes Vestas, GE, Gamesa, Suzlon, Senvion and NEG Micon turbines.

What are the most relevant standardizations for condition monitoring systems?

In this relatively young industry, standardization is an ongoing process. The most recent rationalization efforts have been related to measurement types and naming conventions, to enable comparisons between different brands of suppliers/CMS vendors.   

How will the market develop in the years to come?

We are convinced that CMS will continue to play an increasing role in optimizing O&M strategies for O&Os as well as OEM’s. The O&O’s are seeking to streamline their O&M processes and optimizing production output. Brüel & Kjær Vibro’s CMS can play an active part in ensuring the O&O’s meet those goals. The costs of CMS have decreased significantly during the past years and we are able to present our clients with an estimated ROI of 6 -18 months on retrofit cases.

An emerging market which is creating new demand is the CMS for smaller wind turbines (< MW). We are serving this market segment as well.

Are there differences in the CMS for on- and offshore wind farms?

The optimal sensor set-up for wind turbines onshore does not differ significantly from the one for offshore turbines. However, all offshore turbines are equipped with tower condition sensors, which is also an option for onshore turbines. In addition, we do pay extra attention to early fault detection on offshore turbines due to the complexity and cost of repairs in the conditions presented offshore.

Which are the most important markets for Brüel & Kjær Vibro at the moment?

First and foremost, Brüel & Kjær Vibro is a global supplier with offices in all continents. Our most important markets in the wind power area are Europe, North America and China. In addition, we are experiencing growth in Central and Latin America as well.

For more information please visit www.bkvibro.com.