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CHAPTER 2

MONITORING AND FAULT DETECTION IN WECS

2.1 INTRODUCTION

During the operation of a wind mill, a number of problems might

arise. These include faults of electrical and mechanical types. “Prevention is
better than cure” So continuous monitoring of wind mill operation is
imperative to extract the maximum power from the wind mill. Mechanical
faults can be easily identified and cleared by continuous monitoring. Certain
electrical faults cannot be easily diagnosed. This chapter deals with the
various types of faults and methods to eliminate them.

2.2 FAULTS IN WECS

In the WECS, it is possible to classify the faults which occur due to

Mechanical and Electrical background. Mechanical faults occur due to
braking, oil level and temperature and severe damage of blades due to the
rotation of blades at extreme speed during strong flow of wind. When the gear
box oil level decreases below the prescribed level, the temperature increases
and catches fire (Ribrant et al. 2007) and (Ylu & Tang 2012). So the
temperature of the oil should be maintained at prescribed level. Due to wrong
failure detection that could originate from the noise within the system, wind
mills are frequently restarted. Electrical faults occur due to improper
grounding and open or short circuit conditions. If any of the above mentioned
faults occur then it will lead to system failure.
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2.3 DEFECT (FAULT) DETECTION

In wind turbine, rotor creeps and damage fatigue may develop due
to manufacturing faults which affect the proper functioning and life span of
the turbine. Dirt, ice, bird collision, dampness can cause imbalance in the rotor
blades due to asymmetric aerodynamic. Gear tooth damages, high speed and
low speed shaft faults often causes failures in wind turbine gear box. Most of
the Electrical and Mechanical faults can be monitored easily by using
controller area network (CAN) in any remote area. By using CAN it is
possible to identify some faults in the system (Fang et al. 2008).

2.4 FAULT DETECTION USING CAN CONTROLLER

The system consists of microcontroller, GPRS module, CAN

controller, and parameters of wind turbine. Microcontroller is the key element
in the processing module that monitors the wind turbine parameters. The
block diagram of CAN connected data processing module is shown in
Figure 2.1. CAN controller is used to communicate between the wind turbine
and the database. For each time interval, microcontroller preprocesses the
sensed data and it updates the parameter values to the central database via
GPRS module. Memory module is also provided for future references. RS232
is used for serial communication between the simulink and the CAN Bus.
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(Source: Mohanraj et al. 2013)

Figure 2.1 Block Diagram of CAN Connected Data Processing Module

Monitoring parameters are more important in diagnosis system.

The vibration parameters are observed from nacelle, gear box and generator
shaft. The rotation speed is measured from slow shaft, fast shaft and generator
shaft. Oil levels to be monitored for the lubricant and brake oil. Yawing is
observed from the nacelle.

2.4.1 CAN Interfacing Model

CAN bus is a network protocol that is used for exchanging the data
between the microcontrollers or any other devices without the use of any
control computer. Here the CAN interface module acts as a communication
link between the wind turbine and the control center to transfer the monitored
parameters. It consists of three components CAN Transceiver (MCP 2551),
CAN Controller (MCP 2510), DSPIC. The block diagram of CAN interface
module is given in the Fig 2.2. MCP 2510 has two mode of operation, basic
CAN which is a default mode and PeliCAN. CAN transceiver is required to
shift the voltage levels of the microcontroller to those appropriate for the CAN
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bus. This will help in the creation of differential signal CAN High and CAN
Low that is needed in CAN bus. This device must be able to withstand voltage
tolerance which may be caused by noise pickup. DSPIC contains the feature
of signal processing. The opto coupler and power isolator are used to improve
the reliability of CAN interface module. Not all of the nodes may be used for
complex functions and algorithms. Therefore to reduce the development cost
and increase the system integrity, a node can consists of an MCP25050 chip
which is manufactured for CAN bus system for simple input output
application.

(Source: Mohanraj et al. 2013)

Figure 2.2 CAN Interface Module
CAN bus does not carry any address between the transmitter and
the receiver Instead, it holds the unique identifier that is a numeric value used
to label the message throughout the network. The devices that are connected
by CAN network are typically sensors, actuators, and other control devices.
These devices are connected to bus through a host processor, a CAN
controller and transceiver. CAN data transmission uses a lossless bit wise
arbitration method of contention and resolution. CAN controller transmits the
data from the wind turbine by converting the analog data gathered into digital
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form and transmits it. The transmitted data can also be monitored by using
Internet of Things (IOT) at any desired place. CAN protocol has the
following layers like application layer, object layer, transfer layer and physical
layer. The various areas of application are automotive, industrial and
entertainment.

2.5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The fault identification is done using the MATLAB and the

parameters are measured through the CAN interface module. The monitored
data is analyzed using the neural network. The location and faults are analyzed
as and when they occur and the data is transmitted from the wind turbine to
the control center through CAN bus and an SMS is sent to the technical
person regarding the fault. Figure 2.3 shows the MATLAB output of
parameters: voltage, current, power, rotor resistance in this order.

(Source: Mohanraj et al. 2013)

Figure 2.3 Output Parameters of 225 kW WF
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The effect of harsh conditions and the nature of large

electromechanical system are the causes of fault in the wind turbine. It is very
important to perform the monitoring and fault diagnosis of wind turbine
parameters. Therefore in this paper, the design of a remote monitoring and
fault diagnosis system based on CAN and the SMS is sent regarding the
location and the type of fault is proposed. Finally the System performance and
the efficiency are effective and reliable.

2.6 FOCUS ON POWER SYSTEM STABILITY AND POWER

QUALITY ANALYSIS

The major problem while connecting wind mill to the grid are
voltage variations, notching of the supply and harmonics. When the system
follows the above mentioned CAN Bus, interfacing faults arising in the
system can be rectified and the system becomes reliable. But the power
quality issues that occur while connecting this system to the grid cannot be
controlled by conventional controllers. However, these power quality issues
can be minimized by connecting modernized FACTS devices (Wang, C M
2006, Wekhande et al. 1999 , Wenyi et al. 2010 and Sovan D et al. 2013).

2.7 SUMMARY

In this chapter, the various problems occuring in the wind mills are
discussed. A wind mill that is interfaced with CAN network to detect faults or
to prevent the faults through monitoring is elaborated. This will support the
developments of IOTs, reliability of the power generation through wind and
monitor the system around the world. The major problem of the voltage
variation is controlled by connecting the compensating FACTS devices at
optimum locations. The chapter 3 discusses modeling and analysis of FACTS
controllers which precedes the implementation of the controllers in the 13 bus
system.