Drivetrain Components Reliability And Optimisation Forum

Registration And Refreshments

Chair's Opening Remarks

Benson Waldron, Head Of Renewables Certification UK, DNV GL 

Life-Cycle Cost Challenges From An Owner Operator’s Perspective

• Taking into account failures of gearboxes and generators in early life

• Cost relation to the capability of suppliers to manufacture gearboxes that are reliable

• Forecast and budgets: when to upgrade, repair or replace?

• Failure models and practical examples on minimising failures

• Quality assurance and durability requirements

• Refurbishment of drivetrain

• What standards do we request to suppliers to push them on the 20+ years promise?

• What kind of testing do we request?

PERFORMANCE OPTIMISATION STRATEGIES TO EXTEND THE LIFETIME OF DRIVETRAIN COMPONENTS

Condition Monitoring From An Asset Management Perspective 

• Analysing developments and improvements in diagnosis and how these influence failure modes 
• Predicting failures with confidence and in a timely manner to make prompt decisions on your fleet 
• Real examples and case studies of cost savings through condition monitoring

Anthony Birchall, Senior CMS Engineer, RES Group

Networking Break And Morning Refreshments 

Repairing Wind Turbine Gears And Assemblies With Isotropic Superfinishing

• Explanation of the isotropic superfinishing technology and its benefits
• Isotropic superfinishing’s wind turbine gear repair capabilities and case studies
• Review of alternate wind turbine gear overhaul options as compared to isotropic superfinishing
• Recommendations and potential advantages of isotropic superfinishing for both Owner-Operators and Gear Repair Service Providers

Martin McCormick, Sales Manager, REM Surface Engineering 

Practical Experience On How To Achieve Better Understanding Of Gearbox Failures And Improved Reliability

• Best practises used to set up an internal condition monitoring centre

• Addressing gearbox repair challenges and consequent necessity for fault detection

• Quickly and efficiently detect and remedy faults, failures and fatigue quicker

• Oil and lubrication solutions to improve reliability of gearboxes

Javier San-Miguel Armendariz, Strategy And Business Development Manager, CENER

Case Studies On Increased Reliability For Early Detection Of Planet Gear Faults

1. Challenges in gearbox 1st stage fault detection
2. Importance of lead time to maintenance and the factors that influence it
3. Reliability improvement of 1st stage fault detection over the years
4. Actual case studies
5. Economic benefits of early and reliable detection and diagnostics of faults

Jonel Palou,  Diagnostic Engineer,  Brüel & Kjær Vibro

Networking Lunch 

Catch the box! OPEN FLOOR DISCUSSION

Streamlining And Fine Tuning Your Predictive Maintenance Regime To Avoid Unexpected Costs

How many times have you heard colleagues and peers complaining about lack of knowledge and data sharing in the Wind industry? And, how many times did you all agree that the ultimate goal is to provide energy at affordable prices by bringing down O&M costs through preventative maintenance?

This session has been designed for audience participation and knowledge sharing with no excuses! Instead of slowly passing around a stick microphone, simply throw the soft catchbox to the first person in the room who’s meeting your eyes!

Delegates are encouraged to come along with ideas, comments and provocative questions for their peers. This is a self-moderated session so there won’t be such thing as hiding in corners!

Emulation And Measurement Of Wind Turbine Power Converter Junction Temperature

• Background to why we are doing the work (failure rates of power converters in wind turbines)
• Outline of experimental work into measuring the junction temperature using IR sensors
• Work into emulation of wind turbine operational profiles in the laboratory
• Outline of our collaboration with a power electronics testing company on this project and future ideas

Christopher Smith, Postgraduate Researcher, Durham University

The Role Of Asset Management In Reducing O&M Costs Whilst Maximizing Profitability And Prolonging A Fleet’s Lifetime 

• Extend lead time by planning ahead

• Optimising spare parts replacement  

• Avoiding failures due to mistakes during installation, design, wear out, damage or fatigue

• Understand how extended lead-time translates to substantial savings

• What information do you need from your drivetrain to make the right choices for your fleet?

Francesco Vanni, Senior Engineer - Asset Integrity And Performance , DNV GL 

Networking Break And Afternoon Refreshments

Roundtable Discussions

• How to identify the main sources of faults and predict those that will turn into failures

• How can drive train load simulation and CMS can benefit from each other

• Finetuning the leadtime process 

• Component design and manufacturing process: what are we doing wrong? 

Roundtable Feedback 

Speed Networking

Realising the importance of connecting with your peers, we organised a moderated networking session where delegates are prompted to meet others in brief 3-minute rounds. The moderator will be keeping track of time and announcing participants when to switch partners.

Make sure you bring lots of business cards along with you!

Chair’s Closing Remarks

Close Of Day One

Registration And Morning Refreshments

Chair's Welcome And Opening Remarks

Giles Hundleby, Director,  BVG Associates

New Design Advancements And Manufacturing Challenges

Hybrid Designs: When Gearboxes And Generators Become One

• Meeting the industry's pressing need for greater reliability

• Combining a simplified medium-speed gearbox with a mid-speed permanent magnet generator

• Simplifying the power train and improve performance and reliability

• Reaching the goal of having a simpler and more reliable gearbox, with a generator of comparable size

Jan-Henrik Jansen, Head Of Blade And Gearbox Service, Nordex 

CATCH THE BOX! Open Floor Discussion 

New vs. Older Turbine Designs: Does Technology Innovation Mean Improvement But Also Different Challenges?

Here's some food for your brain to kick it off: 

• Future gearbox designs and hybrids - fine tuning the manufacturing process

• Comparing the vibration level between old and new designs to assess failure mode

• How are new gearbox designs going to improve lifetime and power production compared to older turbines?  

• New designs: Is there going to be a knowledge gap to deal with fault prevention?  

Networking Break And Morning Refreshments

OEM’s Perspective On Direct Drive Technology Developments

• Simplifying the nacelle systems in order to increase reliability, efficiency and avoid gearbox issues

• Addressing challenges in producing technology that is lighter or more cost-effective than the conventional geared drive trains

• Where do direct drivetrain place themselves in the market today?

Steffan Hansen, H ead Of Technology, Power Converter And Generator, Siemens 

Full Scale Main Shaft Fatigue Testing 

• Test plan development 
• Operative challenges
• Insight on found results

Hans Kyling, Research Associate, Division Wind Turbine And System Technology, Fraunhofer IWES

Big Data And Field Results To Extend Turbine Longevity

• Field data enabled design is based on in real life operating conditions
• Loads are determined from the operational fleet
• Main failure modes are learned from maintenance data

Dr. Jan Helsen,  Coordinator Big Data ,  Vrije Universiteit Brussel/OWI-lab

Networking Lunch 

Moving Towards The End Of A Turbine’s Lifetime

An Owner Operator's Insight On Turbines Out Of Warranty And Asset Reliability Models

• What is a owner operator’s approach towards turbines 20-23 years old?
• How to choose when to repair, replace or decommission
• Assessing which components you need solutions for and source a cost-effective service provider
• How to best choose your service provider by looking at

o track record

o range of brands serviced

o geographical expertise

Michael Davies, Senior Operations Engineer, RWE Innogy

The Industry’s Headache: Retrofitting Or Replacing?

• Latest developments on the drivetrain for new wind turbines and option modifications for older ones

• Why replacing when you can optimise?

• Having the ultimate goal in mind: extending the lifetime and acting upon it through repowering or replacing

• Non-European suppliers: do they understand the product and wind sufficiently to be reliable supplier

• The remaining use of lifetime - providing a useful tool to predict better component replacement and optimise logistics for main bearings

• When does it become too late to retrofit?

• Retrofit and servicing - how to choose components and systems that add value to your turbines

• How to replace components to minimise problems and maximise performance

• How to analyse the impact of retrofitting on turbine performance

Participants: 

Michael Davies, Senior Operations Engineer, Innogy   Renewables UK Ltd 

Francesco Vanni,  Senior Engineer - Asset Integrity And Performance  ,  DNV GL 

Marco Cannarozzo,  Production Optimisation Manager,  ERG Power Generation, Italy

Moderator: Christian Fenselau, Chief Specialist Test And Validation, Vestas

Chair's Closing Remarks

Extended Networking Break 

End Of Forum