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uptime
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remote controls and low and medium
voltage cubicles. The main custom-
ers include the Italian electric utilities
ENEL, EDISON and EDIPOWER and
the Spanish utility ENDESA.
Brüel & Kjær Vibro has delivered a
full range of monitoring systems to
Andritz Hydro over the years, which
include the VC-6000 compact moni-
tor and the VC-4000 monitoring sys-
tem. These systems have been used
on hydro generating units ranging
from 4MW units to units over 150MW.
OEM Monitoring
Requirements
The Italian workshop of Andritz Hydro
has very special needs for a machine
condition monitoring system for their
smaller hydro generating units. Sev-
eral of their clients have small hydro-
electric generating units, sometimes
less than 10MW, where there is only
a single hydroelectric generating
unit in the power station. A typical
example of this is shown in Figure
2. These power stations collectively
play an important role in the local en-
ergy distribution. Despite their small
size, the uptime of these machines is
vital. But as a result of the hydro gen-
erating unit size and small numbers
in the power station, it can be difficult
to find a cost-effective monitoring so-
lution for these critical machines.
A typical rack-based safety and con-
dition monitoring system has all the
necessary functionality and remote
monitoring capability for these types
of applications, but such a system
would be too expensive for monitor-
ing a single hydro generating unit.
There are many inexpensive vibra-
tion monitors in the market, but these
do not have sufficient functionality
for effective condition monitoring of
hydro units. These types of vibra-
tion monitors are primarily designed
for monitoring pump and fan motor
trains. Moreover, these monitors of-
ten do not have a remote monitoring
interface that can be accessed by a
SCADA system.
Compact Monitor as an OEM
Product
The Brüel & Kjær Vibro VC-6000
compact monitor provided an optimal
solution to this dilemma. This vibra-
tion monitor has wide-ranging condi-
tion monitoring measurement capac-
ity, and can be interfaced via OPC
to a DCS/SCADA system for remote
process visualization, acknowledging
alarms, resetting relays and changing
setup parameters.
The compact monitor is factory-con-
figured at Brüel & Kjær Vibro for the
specific monitoring requirements at
Andritz Hydro, which include the sen-
sor inputs and specialized measure-
ments. This pre-configured product
is delivered as a standardized OEM
product platform to Andritz Hydro,
which can be used for many differ-
ent types and sizes of hydroelectric
generating units. When the compact
monitor is installed on-site at an end-
user's power station, the measure-
ment parameters are "fine-tuned" to
the particular characteristics of the
generating unit, such as rotational
speed, number of turbine blades, etc.
The relay configuration and vibration
data to be exported to the DCS are
set up on-site according to the re-
quirements of that power station. An
OPC interface is also set up on-site
for exporting data to the SCADA sys-
tem, if needed.
Typical Monitoring
Configuration for the
Compact Monitor
For Andritz Hydro, the compact moni-
tor is typically used to monitor small
hydroelectric generating units, many
of which are under 10MW. Figure 3
shows a typical configuration for the
compact monitor for safety and con-
dition monitoring of a typical hydro-
electric generating unit. In this exam-
ple, four compact monitors are used
for monitoring the upper and lower
generator guide bearings, the turbine
guide bearing, and for monitoring the
axial vibration.
Figure 2. Typical Andritz Hydro com-
pact hydro generating unit (horizon-
tal Francis turbine, 9.2 MW).