Overview

Taurbeg Wind Farm is a 25.3MW wind farm located in Cork, Ireland. The project, which is owned by The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) has been producing enough energy to power over 15,000 homes. RES has been providing O&M services to the project since its construction in 2006.

Challenge

Recently, RES’ in-house Condition Monitoring System team detected an issue with the main shaft on one of the 11 Siemens 2.3MW turbines. In order to prevent a catastrophic failure of the component it was essential to continue to monitor the issue, while also carefully planning the replacement and sourcing the specialist equipment required to carry it out.

Solution

With the CMS team continuing to closely monitor the asset, the Turbine O&M team immediately began the process of sourcing and procuring a replacement main shaft along with all other ancillary items. In addition, highly specialised rotor brackets were also procured to carry out the works and provide RES an enduring capability for further works of this nature.

Following this, a suitable weather window was identified, and a controlled stop was planned. The team was then able to mobilise to site and complete the replacement quickly and efficiently, allowing the turbine to return to service with minimal downtime.

This operation highlights the immense value of condition monitoring, allowing the turbine to continue generating until the replacement was ready to be performed, saving the client £120K in lost revenue.

RES has carried out similar works across other projects. Recently, in Moray, Scotland, our O&M team performed a gearbox replacement on another Siemens 2.3MW turbine at TRIG’s Hill of Towie site, following a component failure. In this instance, in addition to the gearbox and ancillary items, a specialised main shaft clamp was procured, adding further capabilities to our turbine O&M teams ever-expanding repertoire.

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