THE CHALLENGE

A yaw motor suffering from sticking motor brakes, drivetrain lockup, or motor keyway failure will stress other yaw motors by forcing them to compensate, likely shortening their lifespan. Underperforming yaw motors contribute to reduced overall turbine efficiency, and the replacement of failed yaw motors increases turbine down time.

Key Benefits:

• Early detection of underperforming yaw motors
• Minimizes repair costs through early detection
• Minimizes unscheduled downtime via advanced notice
• Detects faults that may be missed via visual inspection

THE RESULTS

A turbine equipped with the yaw motor monitoring system had all four yaw motors succumb to failure. A diverging trend in the data collected by the yaw motor monitoring system indicated an issue with two of the motors several months in advance. An alert was sent to the customer following the likely failure of the third motor. The additional load on the last functioning motor was evident in the data until it too finally failed, causing the turbine to be taken offline for repairs.

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