A total of 585 turbines across 10 wind farms have been incorporated into the company’s Fleet Monitor platform as part of a data-driven, engineering-based approach to predictive maintenance. The project has seen ten BP wind farms in the US, totalling 1.2 GW, incorporated into the platform.
The installed asset base in the US continues to expand and mature. Maintaining control over operational and financial performance is a core focus for wind power producers that has driven rising demand for innovative predictive maintenance solutions. However, a diverse range of installed turbine technologies and condition monitoring systems, managing and acting on critical performance data spanning entire fleets, presents a substantial challenge.
Onyx InSight Fleet Monitor brings together data streams from multiple drivetrain technologies and turns them into valuable insight, enabling project owners to detect developing failures months before action is required, predicting the useful life of components and enabling decisions about where and when to send out inspection and repair teams. In turn, this drives down overall maintenance expenditure and minimises asset downtime, reducing the levelised cost of energy produced by the turbine fleet. The Fleet MonitorTM platform forms part of an integrated offering that includes a powerful combination of condition monitoring hardware, software and advanced predictive analytics services.
The expansion of BP’s monitoring digital platform has been undertaken in three phases. In 2016, 242 wind turbines were integrated into Fleet Monitor and in 2017, a further 52 turbines were added, having been retrofitted with Onyx InSight’s high-performance condition monitoring hardware, ecoCMSTM. A further 291 turbines are being fitted with ecoCMSTM and incorporated within Fleet MonitorTM throughout 2018.
With ongoing support from the Onyx InSight team, data and analysis produced by this integrated digital platform is being monitored centrally at BP Wind’s Remote Operations Centre in Houston, giving BP an in-depth understanding of drivetrain equipment performance across a fleet that comprises 5 different turbine models and 10 different gearbox makes.
“BP Wind is adopting best practice with an integrated approach to predictive maintenance that is driven by data, but underpinned by robust engineering principles” said Ashley Crowther, Group Vice President at Onyx InSight. This brings tangible advantages in the form of reliable performance, reduction of OPEX costs, and higher asset value – all of which will ultimately be passed on as cost savings to consumers.”
Alistair Warwick, vice president of BP Wind Energy, added that Onyx InSight was able to offer a solution that can be readily retrofitted to the diverse range of technologies employed within the BP fleet.
Image: Onyx InSight Fleet Monitor platform
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