Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance
The rapidly growing number of wind turbines, providing an increasingly credible alternative to the use of polluting fossil fuels, brings with it a rising need for quality maintenance programmes if production targets are to be met and reliability standards raised. Manufacturers and operators alike face not only the obvious issues associated with the amortisation of initial capital costs but also the need to maintain levels of production above the ‘penalty zone’. Simple business economics prescribe that minimising downtime optimises availability and maximises profitability. By Don Wootton and Chris Morton, Spectro Oil Analysis, UK