Whats Hot in

University Offshore Renewable Research

Peter Tavner
Emeritus Professor, Durham University
Former President of European Academy of Wind Energy

Beginning is easy - Continuing is hard

Japanese Proverb

1
Overview

Preventing failures, monitoring

Condition Monitoring
A cautionary monitoring tale
About wave & tidal
Conclusions

2
Preventing Failures,
Monitoring

3
London Array, Offshore Wind Farm
175 x 3.6 MW WTs, 630 MW

4
 Wind Turbine
monitoring in Condition
Monitoring,
Diagnosis,
context 10 kHz
CM,
Typical data numbers for a 3.6 MW WT: Not continuous < 35 Hz
SCADA: 400-500 I/O, Continuous
25% alarms 75% signals;
SHM: 10-20 I/O; Structural
CMS: 10-20 I/O. Health
Monitoring,
SCADA evolved from 1980s-requirement
to measure performance of testing
SHM,
onshore Danish Concept WTs; < 5 Hz
SHM evolved from 1990s-requirement to Not
meet insurance measurement needs to continuous
prove structural strength;
CMS evolved from 2000s-requirement SCADA, < 0.001 Hz
from insurers following stall-regulated Continuous signals and alarms
machine gearbox failures. 5
 CMS,
Vibration, Oil & Electrical
Signals

Reference 22 6
 CMS in Context
Conventional rotating machine
condition monitoring
Vibration accelerometers, proximeters Blade and
particles in oil pitch monitoring
Electrical system
monitoring

7
Gearbox Vibration & Particle Count CMS
during a 1.3 MW 2-speed WT Gearbox Bearing Fault

Reference 12, 13 & 16 8
Durham
30 kW Wind Turbine Condition Monitoring Test Rig
(WTCMTR)

Reference 13 9
Power CMS
during a 30 kW WTCMTR Generator Rotor Asymmetry Fault

Reference 13 10
Gear Vibration CMS
during a 30 kW WTCMTR Gear Tooth Fault

0.45
SBPF = 0.0065e0.042*P
Healthy Tooth R = 0.8808
0.4 Early Stages of Tooth Wear
Missing Tooth
0.35

0.3
SBPF [gP2]

0.25

0.2

0.15
SBPF = 0.0028e0.0437*P
R = 0.8974
0.1

0.05
SBPF= 0.0015e0.0433*P
R = 0.7502
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Power [%]

Reference 18
11
Gear Vibration CMS
during a 750 kW WT Gearbox Gear Tooth Fault

Reference 18 12
 SCADA
Alarms & Signals

Reference 22 13
Converter SCADA Alarms
1.67 MW Variable Speed WT
Double Fed Induction Main WT
Generator Bypass
Main Switch Transformer
Contactor
Grid
Stator
Rotor

DC Link

Rotor-side Grid-side
Inverter Inverter
Crowbar

Series
Contactor

Alarm Names
Turbine Pitch General
Turbine Blade1-3 Emergency
Rotor Over-current
Rotor-side Inverter Over-temperature
Rotor-side Inverter IGBT
DC LinkOver-Voltage
Grid-side Inverter Over-current
Grid-side Inverter Over-temperature
Grid-side Inverter IGBT
Converter (General)
Main Switch
Grid Voltage Dip
Reference 10
14
Converter SCADA Alarms
1.67 MW Variable Speed WT

Normalised Cumulative Alarm Duration vs Calendar Time

10 alarms associated with grid fault were chosen

Grid Fault1 Grid Fault 2

Reference 10 15
 Converter SCADA Alarms
1.67 MW Variable Speed WT

Rotor-side Inverter Over-Current &

Grid-side Inverter Over-
Rotor-side Inverter Over-temperature
current

DC Link Over-voltage

Grid Voltage Dip

Converter General

Pitch General &

Blade1-3 Emergency
Main Switch

16
Reference 10

Pitch System SCADA Alarms
1.67 MW Variable Speed WT
T set by switching frequency

Rectifier Diode Bridge

DC Bus Converter/SPA Series Field Pitch Gearbox

2 IGBT
AC

Relay timer

Encoder

M
Shunt
Field

Motor Reversing
2 Quardrant Chopper
Switches

Battery (EPU)

Alarm Name
Turbine Pitch General
Turbine Blade1-3 Emergency
Pitch Warning General
PCP Initiated Emergency Feather Control
Blade 1 Saturation Limit
Blade 1 Short Circuit
Servo Pitch Amplifier (SPA) Fault Blade 1
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Reference 10

Pitch System SCADA Alarms
1.67 MW Variable Speed WT

Pitch Warning General

Pitch General
Blade1-3 Emergency

Blade 1 Servo
Pitch Amplifier
Fault

Blade 1
PCP Initiated Emergency Short Circuit
Feather Control

Blade 1 Saturation Limit

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Reference 10

SCADA Alarm Key Performance Indices*(KPI)

KPIs:
KPI 1, Average Alarm Rate: long term average number of
alarms /10 min
KPI 2, Maximum Alarm Rate: maximum number of alarms /10
min
* Standard
Alarm systems, a guide to design, management and
procurement No. 191 Engineering Equipment and Materials
Users Association 1999 ISBN 0 8593 1076 0

Reference 10
19
SCADA 10 min Alarm KPIs from 7 Wind Farms

20

Reference 10
Conclusions
Wave & Tidal

21
The Problem: Wind Farms of 100-500 WTs
UK Offshore Rounds 2 & 3 400 I/O per WT
20000 WT I/O per Wind
Farm, excluding substation,
cables & connection
Total Wind Farm I/O >
30000
Onshore:
75% of faults cause
5 % of downtime
25% of faults cause
95% of downtime
(Reference 10)
Offshore this 75% of small
faults will be critical
With the alarm rates
encountered onshore
Operations will be
overloaded
They will consume O&M
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time & money


Reference 15
 Power to Weight Ratios of Wind, Wave & Tidal
100.0
Onshore Wind Offshore Wind Turbines Tidal Stream Devices Wave Energy Converters Floating Wind
Turbines Turbines

?
?
Installation

Power to Weight, kW/tonne

10.0
? 3600/kW
Installation CoE
3600/kW 250/MWh
Installation CoE

1200/kW 200/MWh
Installation CoE

1.0
650/kW 110/MWh
CoE

85/MWh

0.1
Vestas V90, WT

SWT 3.6, WT

Vestas V90, OWT, Kentish

Vestas V90, OWT, Barrow

MCT, TSD, Seagen

Atlantis AR1000, TSD, EMEC

Oyster, WEC, EMEC

Pelamis, WEC, Agucadoura

SWT 2.3, FWT, Hywind

V80, FWT, WindFloat

SWT 3.6, OWT, Anholt

TE5, WEC, Lowestoft

Flats

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 Wave Power

Pelamis P2, 750 kW

Wavegen-Limpet, 150 kW

24
Archimedes Wave Swing, 1 MW
 Tidal Power

Hammerfest Strom 1000, 1 MW

Atlantis AR1000, 1MW

25
EvoPod, Currently 10kW
 21st Century Tidal Devices

>50 TSD technologies around the world, few will be viable.

TSDs can be horizontal, vertical turbines or oscillating hydrofoils.
Which is the most reliable architecture ?

Reference 8 26
Whats the Predicted Failure Rate
Number of subsystems
Total number of subsystems s per device (Nss)

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 Device 3, 100% Device 1, 100% Device 2, 50% Device 4, 50% Device 2, 100% Device 4, 100%
power power power power power power
Subsystems (Nss) 26 38 38 46 57 59

Reference 8 27
Whats the Predicted Failure Rate
Failure Rate Estimates
1 year operation
Total number of subsystems s per device (Nss) 15

Total Failure rates per device (Failures/year)

60 14
13
12
50
11
10
40 9
8
30 7
6
5
20
4
3
Measured

10 2
working WTs

1 same

0 0 size

Device 3, 100% Device 1, 100% Device 2, 50% Device 4, 50% Device 2, 100% Device 4, 100%
power power power power power power
Subsystems (Nss) 26 38 38 46 57 59
Alternative 1 4.074 4.764 3.483 4.499 6.284 6.770
Alternative 2 4.927 5.691 3.899 4.892 8.568 8.608

Reference 8 28
How Many Survive in the Water

Reference 8 29
Reliability Model for TSD 1

TSD 1 critical subassemblies

0.9
Predicted failure frequancy/deviee/year Tfi (Failures/year)

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

Subassemblies

Reference 9 30
TSD 2 Reliability Model
Comparison between predictions & reality

Reference 9 31
Conclusions
WT reliability is improving
Offshore WT reliability is < onshore
Subassemblies with high failure rates are consistent
Downtime or MTTR and cost are also important
Failure rates of subassemblies can improve with time
Offshore availability Ai is worse than onshore
WT experience can be mapped onto Tidal Turbines
Current predicted Tidal Turbine reliabilities are poor
Predicted Wave Device reliabilities will also be poor
Wave & Tidal Device reliabilities need to be improved
We need to concentrate on:
Introduce redundancy;
Remove or relocate high risk components;
Review reliability during design;
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Pre-test components and sub-assemblies before putting them to sea.
1.
Thank you
Polinder, H. van der Pijl, F F A, de Vilder, G J, Tavner, P J (2006) Comparison of direct-drive and geared generator concepts for wind turbines, IEEE Trans Energy
Conversion, 21(3): 725 733;
2. Tavner, P J, Edwards, C, Brinkman, A, Spinato, F (2006) Influence of wind speed on wind turbine reliability, Wind Engineering, 30(1):5572;
3. Ribrant, P J J, Bertling L M (2007) Survey of failures in wind power systems with focus on Swedish wind power plants during 19972005, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion,
22(1): 167173;
4. Hansen, A D, Hansen, L H (2007) Wind turbine concept market penetration over 10 years (19952004), Wind Energy, 10(1):8197;
5. Tavner, P J, Xiang, J P, Spinato, F (2007) Reliability analysis for wind turbines, Wind Energy, 10(1): 118;
6. Spinato, F, Tavner, P J, van Bussel, G J W, Koutoulakos, E (2009) Reliability of wind turbine subassemblies, IET Renew Power Gen, 3(4): 387-401;
7. Arabian-Hoseynabadi, H, Tavner, P J, Oraee, H (2010) Reliability comparison of direct-drive and geared-drive wind turbine concepts, Wind Energy, 13(1): 62-63;
8. Feng, Y, Tavner, P J, Long, H (2010) Early Experiences with UK Round 1 Offshore Wind Farms, Invited Paper, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Energy,
163(4): 167-181;
9. Tavner, P J , Faulstich, S, Hahn, B., van Bussel, G J W (2011) Reliability and availability of wind turbine electrical and electronic components, Invited Paper, EPE Journal,
20(4);
10. Faulstich, S, Hahn, B, Tavner, P J (2011) Wind turbine downtime and its importance for offshore deployment, Wind Energy 14(3): 327-337;
11. Qiu, Y, Feng, Y, Tavner, P J, Richardson, P, Erdos, G, Chen, B D (2012) Wind turbine SCADA alarm analysis for improving reliability, Wind Energy 15 (8), 951-966;
12. Feng, Y, Qiu, Y, Crabtree, C J, Long, H, Tavner, P J (2012) Monitoring wind turbine gearboxes, Wind Energy 16 (5): 728740;
13. Djurovic, S, Crabtree, C J, Tavner, P J, Smith, A.C (2012) Condition monitoring of wind turbine induction generators with rotor electrical asymmetry, IET Renew. Power
Gener., 6(4): 207 216;
14. Tavner, P J, Greenwood, D M, Whittle, M W G, Gindele, R, Faulstich, S, Hahn, B (2012) Study of weather & location effects on wind turbine failure rates, Wind Energy
16(2): 175-187;
15. Tavner, P J (2012) Offshore Wind Turbines-Reliability, Availability & Maintenance, IET Energy;
16. Whittle, M W G, Trevelyan, J, Shin, W, Tavner, P J (2013) Improving wind turbine drive-train bearing reliability through pre-misalignment, Wind Energy;
17. Whittle, M W G, Trevelyan, J, Tavner, P J (2013) Bearing currents in wind turbine generators, Journal of Renewable & Sustainable Energy, 5, 053128;
18. Zappal, D, Tavner, P J, Crabtree, C. J, Sheng, S (2014) Side-band algorithm for automatic wind turbine gearbox fault detection and diagnosis, IET Renew Power Gen, in
Press;
19. Zaggout, M, Tavner, P J, Crabtree, C J, Ran, L (2014) Wind turbine doubly-fed induction generator rotor electrical asymmetry detection , IET Renew Power Gen, under
review;
20. Chen, B D, Matthews, P C, Tavner, P J (2014) Automated wind turbine pitch faults prognosis based on SCADA data using an a-priori knowledge-based ANFIS, IET Renew
Power Gen, in print;
21. Mott Macdonald Report: UK Electricity Generation Costs Update, 2010
22. http://www.supergen-wind.org.uk/dissemination.html Please register to download the following reports:
Survey of CMS Systems;
Survey of SCADA Systems;
23. Stiesdal, H, Madsen, P H (2005) Design for reliability, European Offshore Wind Conference, Copenhagen.

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