FreeWave Technologies Picked by Turningpoint for Turbine Vibration Monitoring Solution

FreeWave Technologies, a manufacturer of high-performance spread spectrum and licensed radios for data transmission, has been selected by Turningpoint as its wireless data communications partner for its turbine vibration monitoring solutions.

As per the agreement, Turningpoint will leverage FreeWave's FGR2-PE industrial Ethernet radios to remotely monitor vibration data from multiple accelerometers on wind turbines. These Ethernet radios are designed to report the information back to the operations and maintenance (O&M) center for wind farm owners and operators anywhere in the world.

“If a turbine is experiencing a high amount of turbulence and vibration, this can be a precursor to turbine failure that can result in millions of dollars, worth of damage and unavailability affecting a power purchase agreement (PPA) or other commercial contracts,” said Stephen Donovan, business development director of Turningpoint.

“Our solution is able to provide early detection of impending issues and identify where remedial action can be implemented under a scheduled maintenance program. Identifying issues early reduces the risk of faults escalating and deteriorating into potential catastrophic failures,” Donovan added.

The solutions enable operators to assess the general health of the turbine because it gives O&M technicians and operators the ability to predict and mitigate problems before they occur.

Unable to leverage the existing fiber optic network at one particular wind farm and didn't want to use costly satellite communications, Turningpoint approached several technology companies, including FreeWave, to assist in devising a way to get the vibration sensing data from the wind turbine back to the O&M office.

“It is so important that operators look for a company that provides network design services and trial equipment to ensure the products will work before they purchase them, because there can be Line of Sight (LOS) and signal quality issues,” said Ashish Sharma (News - Alert), chief marketing officer of FreeWave Technologies.

Recently, FreeWave announced a new initiative, in collaboration with Rockwell Automation (News - Alert), to design and implement a comprehensive Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system solution to tackle water municipality's growing issues in water management.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.