Condition monitoring of wind turbines: Status quo, user experience and recommendations

This paper summarizes the results of a recent study conducted at Fraunhofer IWES in collaboration with the VGB European Working Group Wind Energy. Based on a comprehensive review of literature, standards and product information as well as on a survey among wind-turbine operators collecting user experience from >2600 CMS-equipped turbines, the study presents the state of the art of CMS and SHM for online monitoring of wind turbines. For the sake of relevancy to practice, the focus is set on those turbine components and monitoring approaches, for which the monitoring technology is already available or is close to market introduction for field application: the drivetrain, the rotor blades and the support structures of onshore and offshore wind turbines.