In recent years pitch bearing failures have become increasingly common, not only in aging wind turbines, but also premature failures in newer models. We talk to many wind farm owners and operators who have problems with pitch bearing reliability, but they all have the same challenge: there has been no recognised solution available for monitoring the bearings. Therefore, it is common to rely on sporadic information from offline grease analysis – which may show high iron content due to debris generated inside the bearing – or information from technicians in the field. Many times, the first sign of a failed bearing is an audible noise during pitching, but by this point the failure is often very far progressed and the owner may need to urgently schedule a bearing replacement. To make matters worse, some pitch bearings cannot be inspected easily, so even confirming the scale of the damage can be difficult.
The consequences of pitch bearing failures can be very severe, and in the worst cases the failure can lead to the loss of a blade. Even when the fault is detected before catastrophic failure, the owner often doesn’t have sufficient time to cost-effectively organise a bearing replacement and the lead time on new bearings can be very long, potentially leading to long periods of downtime causing lost revenue.
To answer this need, ONYX developed ecoPITCH – a new sensor system for online monitoring of pitch bearings. Demand for this is huge, and we’re busy ramping up production now to support our customers.
ecoPITCH combines data from multiple sensors installed on the pitch bearings and transmits data back to the ONYX server for analysis in fleetMONITOR and AIHub software. Our monitoring teams use advanced analytics to identify multiple failure modes in the pitch bearing – ranging from spalling or macropitting, rolling element damage and cracks through the raceway. The data analysis is a very interesting technical challenge, and hugely rewarding when we identify a fault and deliver real insights to our customers.
Collecting data in the rotating hub is notoriously challenging because it is not possible to run a conventional cable to the stationary nacelle, so we developed multiple communications solutions to overcome this – we offer a 4G cellular solution, transmitting data directly from the hub, as well as a Wi-Fi option for sending data to the nacelle, then using the existing turbine network to transmit data securely to the ONYX server.
It is exciting to be launching the new ecoPITCH product, which we have been developing and refining for a long time, and the whole ONYX team is looking forward to supporting our customers with this new solution. If you have any issues that you’d like to discuss then please get in touch.
