German wind turbine builder is carrying out a condition monitoring campaign at the 402MW Veja Mate offshore wind farm in the German North Sea.
The rotor blade condition monitoring system or fos4X “retroX” system, consisting of a sensor platform and intelligent software, was installed on strategically selected 10% of the wind farm’s turbines.
"The system enables structural condition monitoring of the rotor blades, recording of loads during turbine life time as well as the detection of yaw and pitch misalignment," said a press note from the specialist in fiber optic measurement technology and sensor technology.
A further aspect of the joint project carried out by fos4X is the monitoring, consolidation and orchestration of the entire turbine and subsystem data. The provision of the data to VejaMate as well as further analyses are realized on the fos4X IoT data platform. This provides the operator with essential information for determining remaining life time and continued operation scenarios.
"With fos4X we have found a competent partner for our rotor blade condition monitoring as well as for an extended data infrastructure and analyses", said Stefan Klett, Managing Director, Veja Mate Offshore Project GmbH.
As an essential part of the comprehensive monitoring campaign in the offshore wind farm, fos4X complements the already installed monitoring systems of other turbine components with its rotor blade condition monitoring system.
The installation of the "retroX" system provides Veja Mate with additional information about the structural condition of the equipped rotor blades as well as the loads experienced during life time. This enables initiatives for improved planning and prioritization of maintenance operations.
Veja Mate is an offshore wind farm with a capacity of 402 MW located in the German North Sea. The offshore wind farm is located about 95 km northwest of the island of Borkum in the German Exclusive Economic Zone, an area with strong and steady winds. This enables the 67 Siemens SWT-6.0-154 turbines, each with a capacity of 6 MW and a rotor diameter of 154 meters, to produce enough electricity for 450,000 German households per year.