Enel Green Power is to expand its use of condition monitoring technology within its wind turbine fleet, following an agreement with KK Wind Solutions.
Under the agreement 358 wind turbines operating in the global Enel fleet will be equipped with condition monitoring hardware and software.
Over the next couple of years, KK will install the retrofit kits on all the 358 turbines in Mexico, Brazil, Spain and Chile.
The technology has been initiated in a retrofit project at the Sierra Gorda wind farm in Chile.
Sierra Gorda has a total installed capacity of 112MW (56 turbines G114 2MW).
KK’s Turbine Condition Monitoring (TCM) offering can maximises wind turbines’ uptime by early failure detection of costly components such as gearboxes, main bearings and generators, the company said.
It supports a proactive O&M strategy by providing valuable information on the condition of each wind turbine empowering customers to protect their assets and plan for optimal maintenance, thereby driving down the cost of energy.
By detecting emerging failures early and planning accordingly, the turbine owners typically achieve a payback time in less than two years on the TCM retrofit investment, KK said.
The collaboration between Enel and Gram & Juhl (today part of KK Wind Solutions) started back in 2018, initially focused on installing condition monitoring systems on the drivetrain.
Since then, the technology has been successfully introduced at Enel wind sites in Spain, Greece and India.