Posters

Abstract

A wind turbine can be struck by lightning due to its location, height and internal components which can cause a fire or melting by Joule heating, particularly at the impact point of lightning. Besides, when the lightning current flows through parallel conductors, significant electromagnetic forces are exerted between these conductors. For this reason, wind turbine manufacturers have developed a protection system which is capable of intercepting direct lightning strikes and discharging the lightning current from the point of impact to the ground: this is the Lightning Protection System (LPS). This system must be periodically checked, following the recommendations of the IEC 61400-24 standard, to evaluate its functionality status since asset aging can cause degradation. SupAirVision has developed a mechatronic system embedded on a drone, allowing the integrity of the LPS circuit to be verified through a resistance measurement while ensuring the safety of the field teams. The reliability and the repeatability of the measurements are found to be consistent when compared to historical data. According to our operation analysis, the machine downtime is decreased by over 75%using the drone-based method, compared to a rope access inspection. The measurement data collected from our field mission are also analyzed to study the correlation between the LPS status and theasset's geographical locationcompared to that of regional lightning strike frequency and theage of the machine. This analysis can give some insights into some further actions to be taken to develop a more efficient maintenance strategy. Here we are presenting our latest analysis of our LPS inspection results in France, in correlation with the asset's geographical location compared to the regional lightning strike frequency and the age of the machine. The insight from this analysis highlights the actions to be taken to develop a more appropriate maintenance strategy.