Offshore wind-turbine monitoring

Strathclyde engineers are helping to develop and demonstrate a new monitoring system that could reduce the cost of generating electricity from offshore wind farms.

The £5m condition-monitoring project is funded by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), and is being led by UK-based wind turbine blade monitoring specialist Insensys in partnership with Strathclyde, EDF Energy, E.ON, Romax Technology, and SeeByte.

The consortium will develop and demonstrate advanced systems to monitor the condition and performance of turbines and predict future maintenance requirements for key components so they can be corrected before expensive damage occurs.

Systems will be installed on onshore wind turbines and tested for 18 months with a further year of tests planned for offshore wind turbines, to demonstrate the benefits and savings.

It is estimated that increased output, through reduced downtime and reduced maintenance costs, could result in a benefit of up to £50,000 per turbine, per year.

Prof Bill Leithead of the university's Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, said: 'Offshore wind farms have enormous potential, but the difficulties of maintaining any piece of equipment offshore remains high. So it is imperative not only that offshore wind farms are extremely reliable and efficient but that proactive operation and maintenance strategies are adopted.'