ONYX Insight’s fleetMONITOR software was rolled out to over 250 wind turbines in Italy, Germany and France, helping ERG optimising O&M of its diverse fleet

Genoa, Italy, 24 May — Italy’s leading renewable energy producer, ERG, has signed a five-year software deal with ONYX Insight, a leading provider of predictive data analytics and engineering expertise to the global wind industry. The agreement enables ERG to use ONYX Insight’s cloud-based analytics platform fleetMONITOR to increase component lead times and reduce operations and maintenance (O&M) costs.

As Europe’s expanding wind sector becomes increasingly diversified, the portfolios of leading wind farm owners and operators have become more complex to monitor and maintain. Mixed fleets containing multiple turbine models of different ages have challenged traditional O&M practices, since using multiple software systems collecting disparate data streams is unwieldy for operators.

The use of legacy condition monitoring systems (CMS) that provide inadequate data and inefficient failure detection, or are no longer supported, has also complicated the picture for wind farm operators, particularly as they look to scale up their predictive maintenance programmes. Successful analytics requires high-quality data and failure detection to deliver the most accurate results, but this is often lacking with outdated CMS.

Using fleetMONITOR’s advanced data processing capabilities, ERG has been able to transform its legacy CMS data acquisition to drive better in-house diagnostics. Crucially, ONYX Insight’s software has enabled ERG to self-monitor turbine health efficiently across its mixed fleet using one platform, informing strategic O&M decision-making and increasing profitability.

ONYX Insight supported ERG through the complex setup and configuration of the fleetMONITOR software, and is continuing in-depth training.

Sven Thiesen, European Sales & Engineering Director, ONYX Insight, said: “ERG is a forward thinking and adaptable business, and we are delighted to offer them our support as a technology partner. We look forward to helping more wind farm owners across Europe extract additional value from their investments while streamlining their operations. The software subscription model is fast changing the landscape in wind energy O&M, so it is crucial that independent service providers remain agile to meet customer needs.”