Following a successful field trial, the contract will see ONYX deliver its ecoCMS and fleetMONITOR technology to 30 wind turbines across UPC Renewables’ Sidrap wind farm, providing comprehensive data and analysis to enable long-term predictive maintenance (PdM) strategies.
The 75 MW Sidrap onshore wind farm is Indonesia’s first utility scale wind farm and began providing power to the Southern PLN grid in 2018.
The application of ONYX’s technology supports PdM strategies by allowing operators to effectively manage and plan turbine inspection and maintenance requirements for key components, including drivetrains, pitch bearings, and blades. This approach to condition monitoring creates significant cost and time efficiencies while enhancing safety.
The company’s ecoCMS provides advanced sensing and hardware to deliver reliable, high-quality data which allows operators to accurately understand asset health. The technology is easily integrated with third-party systems to deliver a cost-effective condition monitoring system (CMS) for legacy turbines through to modern multi-megawatt machines.
The ecoCMS data will be analysed in fleetMONITOR by ONYX’s monitoring engineers, enabling detailed insights from vibration, temperature, particle counters, and lubrication data. The condition monitoring solution will diagnose reliability problems for UPC Renewables turbine components up to 24 months before they become critical and enable the operator to plan with confidence, maximising performance and minimising cost.
UPC Renewables engaged with ONYX after experiencing issues with its legacy condition monitoring systems (CMS) detecting main bearing failures. It was vital that ecoCMS could establish a data connection with the incumbent oil particle counter, which was confirmed during the trial. With ONYX’s technology installed, all turbine data is consolidated in one place, delivering a single source of information for turbine health.
Bruce Hall, ONYX Insight CEO, said: “This contract is a key milestone for ONYX as we enter the Indonesian market and strengthen our footprint across Asia Pacific. The region is leading the market with a high volume of installed capacity expected in the coming years and our predictive maintenance solutions can deliver tangible benefits, particularly with early adoption, by enabling operators to plan and execute maintenance before it becomes critical.
“As the world continues to rely more heavily on renewable energy and new wind farms come online, its essential that turbines operate at a maximum capacity and tackling reliability issues is high on the wind sector’s agenda. The cost of component replacement is substantial and if the turbine is offshore, these costs increase significantly. Proven technology such as our ecoCMS and fleetMONITOR allows operators to effectively reduce O&M spend while increasing productivity at a time when it has never been more important.”
