Abstract:

Modern wind turbines are relatively “immature” in the sense that they have not been fielded for a sufficient amount of time to assess their long-term viability. Availability, the ability of a system to function when it is required, is a major concern for alternative energy systems. Profits and environmental benefits will be lost if the costs and energy required to maintain a system outweigh the benefits obtained. Prognostics and system health management (PHM) methods can have a significant impact on the wind energy community. PHM enables the manufacturers and operators of complex systems to move from traditional time- or cyclebased maintenance to condition-based maintenance, which can significantly improve availability. This paper discusses the challenges in guaranteeing the high availability of wind turbines, and the use of PHM as a methodology to guarantee the high availability. A new sensor system for the health monitoring of turbine blades is proposed and a return on investment analysis for its use is presented.