Upon detecting the bearing defect on the gearbox high speed shaft, the turbine was promptly stopped to prevent additional costly damage. The gearbox was found to be repairable, allowing for:
- Cost-Efficient Repairs: Gearbox repairs cost 100,000€, compared to a full replacement cost of 250,000€, leading to additional savings of 150,000€.
- Downtime Optimization: The gearbox repair was scheduled to minimize production loss, resulting in only 3 weeks of downtime instead of 10 weeks, saving an additional 7 weeks and 56,000€ in avoided production loss.
- This intervention prevented from additional degradation of the turbine of +250k€ if it had run to failure
The remote analysis also revealed a faulty bearing on the generator of the same turbine, which had been exposed to electrical current, leading to fluting marks and insulation degradation. The generator bearing was replaced during a scheduled shutdown
This proactive maintenance approach yielded substantial benefits:
- Bearing Replacement Costs: The cost for replacing the faulty bearing was 15,000€.
- Production Loss Reduction: The intervention limited production loss to 1 week instead of 10 weeks, saving 9 weeks of downtime.
The successful bearing replacement during scheduled shutdown minimized production losses, with total savings from the bearing replacement amounting to 57,000€.
Overall, the combined savings, from both interventions totaled over 213,000€ in a short period of time on a single wind turbine, also preventing from additional +250k€ further damage
