PROJECT TITLE :

A review of electrical winding failures in wind turbine generators

ABSTRACT :

Since its business beginnings in the first Nineties, wind energy has grown to be a important issue in the electrical generation industry, representing nine.half dozenpercent of the installed capability in Europe [1] and nearing 3.5percent in North America [2]. Nearly 25percent of the US-based turbines are in Texas, supplying eight% of that state??s annual energy requirements and peaking at almost twenty five% of grid demand from time to time [3]. As with any new industry, there are learning curves in nearly all aspects, however the business is maturing and coming to terms with a number of the technical shortcomings of the first generations of turbines. Though most drive train problems are connected to gearbox part failures, failure of and harm to the generators are the second commonest cause of lost production. As reported by George Gao and William Chen at the electrical Insulation Conference in 2009 [4], many common failure modes have been identified, many of which can be traced to identifiable root causes. But, many failures remain troublesome to trace as a result of minor failures will result in catastrophic electrical failures ultimately related to the root cause [5]. Understanding the types of failures and how often they might occur in a very fleet of turbines is instrumental to developing a proper maintenance procedure and testing regimen. By reviewing the failures of more than 120zero generators, we have been in a position to isolate the failures of electrical materials from the pure mechanical failures. Here, we address their occurrences and present some general suggestions for both the generator style engineers and also the operating corporations responsible for maintaining the wind turbine performance.