A Programmable Controller Based Condition Monitoring Method for Permanent Magnet Tidal Stream Turbine Generators

Tidal stream is the flow of water due to the rise and fall of the tide. Those flows have the advantage in that they are predictable as to their times of occurrence and to their rates of flow. However, installation and maintenance of subsea turbines is both difficult and expensive. For those reasons it is necessary to implement robust condition monitoring. The purpose of condition monitoring is to predict maintenance issues before they become catastrophic. The aim of this paper is to explore the feasibility of capturing and analyzing condition monitoring data using a programmable controller (PLC) with associated software and displaying that data and its relevance on a graphic user interface (GUI). For this purpose an experimental test rig was constructed. Four turbine process variables (PV) were captured, their values displayed and analyzed. The conclusion of this experimental work is that the feasibility of deploying PLC technology for condition monitoring of subsea power generators shows promise and further work in this area is proposed.