Rotor Monitoring System

The Insensys Rotor Monitoring System (RMS) is a proven, robust, load measuring system specifically for installation in the turbine hub. The system can be designed-in during turbine manufacture or retrofitted to existing operational turbines.

The RMS system allows cost effective remote monitoring of turbines by operators for the early detection of operational and maintenance issues such as:

Blade damage - providing real-time notification of damage impacting the structural or aerodynamic performance of the blade, enabling early and planned remedial action and avoiding costly secondary damage. 

Rotor imbalance - providing information on both mass and aerodynamic imbalances, enabling early and planned remedial action, maximising generation capacity and avoiding costly secondary damage.  It has been shown that at least 20% of operational turbines have a significant imbalance, resulting in sub-optimal energy generation (i.e. not meeting the power curve) or excessive vibration, wear and concomitant maintenance.

Presence of ice - the system enables operators to accurately predict when they need to shut down turbines in sites where potential ice throw is a problem. The system's capability to indicate when the ice has been shed from each individual blade also allows the operator to restart generation earlier and with confidence.  This is estimated to increase generating revenue, without any operator intervention, by up to Euro 10,000 ($16,000) per year for turbines in cold climates.

Lightning strike detection - detecting the occurrence of a lightning strike, the blade that has been struck and the magnitude of the strike, thus providing operators with indication of possible damage to blade, turbine and, importantly, to the lightning protection system. The strike intensity measurements also have significant applicability in association with Warranty and Insurance claims.     

Using detailed knowledge of the monitoring system and years of wind turbine industry knowledge Insensys offers a full data analysis service around the turbine rotor performance, enabling a turbine's productivity to be tracked over its operational lifetime.