CMS WIND

FAQ

 

Q- DOES IT TAKE A YEAR TO DEVELOP ALARMS?

A- No. It is likely that someone is learning the application at someone else's expense. While it does take a little time to develop alarms, detecting and ranking issues is fairly routine and is not something that takes a year.

 

Q-IS CMS EFFECTIVE IN THE PLANETARY SECTION OF THE GEARBOX?

A- Yes. Some struggle with detection here but that is not indicative of CMS capability. The main limitation is determining which of the specific planets is failing. However that does not change the O&M response. But each gear has it's own specific failure frequency.

 

Q-IS CMS DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND?

A- No. This is one of those topics that is as easy as you want to make it or as difficult.  Our reports are easy to understand.

 

Q-IS ALL CMS THE SAME?

A- No. There are only so many signals and measurements one can pull from a sensor. Unfortunately there are many variables beyond just the sensor and harware installed in the nacelle.

 

Q- MY OEM HAS CMS, IS IT EFFECTIVE?

A- Maybe. It depends. It can be made to be effective potentially but the assumption is that it is monitoring effectively from the beginning.  Most OEM CMS systems do not monitor all locations, do not use the correct sensors, sensor locations, etc.

 

Q- WHAT IS THE BIGGEST RISK TO AN EFFECTIVE CMS PROGRAM?

A- There are five factors that repeat themselves:

•  Bad Analyst. Incorrect calls and lack of experience in wind creates the illusion that CMS doesn't work effectively.

•  No one looking at the data. Roles change and so does the consistency of monitoring.

•  New management. Again, roles change and so does the consistency of monitoring.

•  Not acting on the data. Lack of communication between departments and a base understanding of how CMS impacts each department is usually the cause.

• Not having a culture of predictive maintenance. This is prolific in wind and not in other industries.