Poseidon Systems is excited to exhibit again this year!
The
Houston Chronicle recently released an article citing an IHS Market report that expects wind O&M to grow by almost 40% by 2027. This has a large relation to the continued aging of turbines, “The North American wind turbine fleet is aging with the average age rising from seven years today to 14 years in 2030.”
Energy companies spend as much as $6 billion annually on wind-related operations and maintenance, a market IHS Markit expects to grow nearly 40 percent to $8.3 billion annually by 2027
Wind turbine gearboxes have been struggling to meet their 20 year design life. There is a
37% chance a wind turbine gearbox will fail due to a bearing failure by year seven. This only increases dramatically as the turbine age beyond that; and a large portion of the US wind fleet it aging past that quickly. Poseidon has developed a suite of sensors aimed at addressing these cost in a significant way.
Eliminate Oil Sampling – Extend Gearbox Oil Drain Intervals by Up to 2x
Within the wind industry, operators are changing oil too often based on historical worse case scenarios and unreliable oil sampling. The industry is unsure about the real remaining useful life (RUL) of oil and is erring on the side of caution. Using Poseidon’s oil quality sensor, operators are able to eliminate the periodic oil sampling and know the health of their oil real-time. This allows operators to monitor oil quality, forecast oil RUL, and optimize oil changes; in some cases operating with the same oil up to two times longer.
Gearbox Life Gauge – Extend Gearbox Life by Several Years
Poseidon Systems has been working with wind turbine OEM’s and operators to implement life extension measurement technologies; by utilizing Poseidon Systems’ wear debris as a life gauge to directly measure the impact their action makes on a wind turbine gearbox. In the presentation below,
Poseidon Systems’ DM4500 was used to measure the rate of fault progression and total fault progression. Based on Poseidon Systems’ past experience with derating, a new derate setting was established to stabilize the fault so the O&M team could optimize replacement uptower.
The operator took this derate recommendation and immediately the sensor was able to determine the fault had significantly slowed its failure rate, with only a 10% total production loss. Many of Poseidon Systems’ customers have used these techniques to extend the life of gearboxes multiple years, waiting for optimistic replacement opportunities, and adjusting based on the feedback from the sensor.
You cannot undue damage in a gearbox, you can only prevent it. Wear debris is the earliest point in time when a gearbox fault can be detected. Poseidon Systems’ offers the most advanced and cost effective system available.
OEM’s and operators can start eliminating portions of the expected 40% increase in O&M investment today; through Poseidon Systems’ gearbox monitoring system with a certain >1,000% ROI.
Limitations of Offline Oil Analysis – Co-Author with EDF Renewables
