Bachmann Monitoring expands CMS for Offshore WEA

Bachmann Monitoring GmbH (BAM) from Rudolstadt/Jena is monitoring 22 percent of new power installed in 2015 in all offshore wind turbine generators (WTGs) in the North Sea and the Baltic with its condition monitoring systems (CMS). This makes Bachmann Monitoring one of the top offshore CMS suppliers. Monitoring is important, particularly with difficult to reach offshore plants out at sea: CMS enables faults to be detected early on and maintenance work to be planned in time.

In all, a total of 546 wind turbines out at sea were connected to the grid, as many as never before. At the end of 2014, there were only wind turbines 246 in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Today 792 offshore plants deliver 3294 MW of power and generate more than eight terawatt hours of electricity. This is the equivalent power consumption of over two million households. The significance of wind turbines as energy suppliers is enormous and failsafe performance is becoming increasingly important. "We are monitoring 22 percent of the new offshore wind turbines (WTGs) installed since 2015 in Germany," stresses Holger Fritsch, CEO of BAM. "And we are planning the fitting of further products for 2106. This includes, for example, the extension of the conventional power train CMS and structure monitoring," adds Ulrich Oertel, head of the Monitoring Technologies Development department at Bachmann.

Best practice: Global Tech I offshore wind farm

The Global Tech I offshore wind farm is 140 kilometers off the Lower-Saxony North Sea coast. With 400 megawatts of power, it is one of the largest German wind farms and is designed to provide 445,000 households with electricity. In order to ensure smooth operation and reliable electricity production of the wind farm, Bachmann Monitoring GmbH has equipped all 80 turbines of Global Tech I with condition monitoring systems for the extensive control of the power train. The 40 turbines in the first expansion stage of the Trianel wind farm Borkum, around 45 kilometers north of the island of Borkum, are also fitted with CMS from Bachmann.

Minimizing downtimes

Condition monitoring is based on a continuous or regular recording of the machine state. The system settings measure and analyze meaningful physical variables, such as vibration. A condition monitoring system integrated in the automation system provides all the information required to detect the risk of failures and to plan maintenance work on schedule. In this way, the costs for spare parts and maintenance can be kept to a minimum and downtimes can be significantly reduced, whilst material and logistics costs also decrease. "Offshore wind turbines are often difficult to reach or access to them is only limited. In which case, maintenance and repair must be planned effectively," Fritsch explains. "It is therefore only logical to fit such important offshore wind farms like Global Tech I and Trianel Borkum with CMS in order to prevent expensive downtimes and additional maintenance costs. We are very proud of taking on this responsibility."

Close to the customer

Bachmann Monitoring has its own CMS center of competence in Rudolstadt, Thuringia, which is available to customers. CEO Holger Fritsch also travels as a specialist speaker: "Integration of structural health monitoring for offshore wind turbines in web-based control center software," is the subject of his next lecture, which will be held on June 9 at the "VDI Forum" in Berlin.
http://www.vdi-wissensforum.de