A nacelle (outer covering on a wind turbine) was damaged at a local site by a blade failure in the spring of 2014. General Electric & Alliance Power donated the nacelle to NJC. We just had to pick it up! With the COETC grant extension, donations from our local partners, and financial support from the Northeastern Junior College, we were able to start planning on how to utilize the nacelle to create a lab environment that could simulate an actual wind turbine.

GE 1.6 MW Wind Turbine Nacelle Build – Feb. 2015

Donation's:

• Infigen donated two 1.5 MW GE Gearboxes and three Yaw planetary drives.

• GE donated one rebuilt GE 1.5 MW generator (still in the process of rebuilding)

• Misc. components were donated from several other sites such as generator brush holders and other electronics.

GE 1.6 MW Wind Turbine Nacelle Build – Feb. 2015

Since we were lacking mechanical drawings for the nacelle, we had to assemble it before we could create drawings to hold the gearbox and generator. The weather was cold so we chose to assemble the nacelle in our shop. The lid made the nacelle too tall, so it was tethered down outside for the winter.

GE 1.6 MW Wind Turbine Nacelle Build – Feb. 2015

The nacelle was assembled by hand. Overall the nacelle weighed around 5,000 lbs. (with the lid)

COETC Supplies for Nacelle

The grant purchased the electrical components and enclosures for the project. These items are being incorporated into the nacelle design by 2nd year wind students. The students should be finished wiring the systems near the end of October and start programming the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) in November.

COETC Supplies for Nacelle

Northeastern Junior College supplied funding for the concrete pad, underground power, structural bedplate, and nacelle repair. (Still in the process for the last two items).

The goal of the fall semester is to have working panel boxes that can be dropped into the Nacelle with a minimum of rework once the main structure is completed. The systems will be tested and programmed in the shop near the end of this semester.

NJC Wind Students have created electrical schematics as they prepare to build the systems. The students will have a working system by December 1st.

The students will automate the lubrication, heating, and cooling of the gearbox. They will control the temperature in the cabinets. Create two pitch systems that will respond to changes in actual wind speed outside the turbine. Students will incorporate a Human Machine Interface (HMI) to display operating conditions in the nacelle. Real time conditions of the gearbox and generator will be monitored on the HMI as well as at a SCADA computer in the shop.

Wind Turbine Top Box Schematics – Justin and Garret • 3 phase power supplied to gear box oil

pump, gearbox cooling fan, and generator cooling fan.

• VFD used to control speed of AC motors.• Top box cabinet temperature controlled

with RTDR mimicking GE temperature control and cold restart procedure.

• Circuit protection and controls designed to allow safe operation of all components.

• Safety chain and motor protection circuits added to monitor critical components.

• Anemometer and Wind Vane incorporated into PLC for wind speed and direction measurements with display on HMI.

• Programmable Logic Controller programmed to control all electrical systems.

Wind Turbine SSB Pitch Schematics – Courtney and Jaden • Three 90 VDC gear motors (blade pitch

motor) will be individually controlled for forward and reverse operation by PLC.

• DC power supply will mimic GE SSB pitch system power supply.

• Emergency pitch system will utilize battery packs to pitch the blades to 90 degrees when E-stop is pressed or during power outage.

• Cabinets will be temperature controlled through PLC.

• Volt and Amp gauges will be used to display electrical conditions in six motor power circuits for visualization purposes.

• A 2nd Pitch System (three more 90VDC motors) will be designed around Salem Pitch system (solid state control of motors) with similar requirements.

Courtney working on the Pitch system

The pitch system controls the three 90VDC gear motors and electric brakes similar to the GE SSB pitch system.

The students created their own power supply by rectifying and smoothing the AC voltage to get DC for the motors. They used an iPad app to simulate certain systems before construction.

Nearly Finished Pitch system

• Pitch system became large enough to fill two enclosures.

• There is about 30 signals that route to the Top box for control purposes.

Justin & Tanner wiring the Top Box• The Top Box contains the

Compact Logix PLC and network switch. The nacelle will communicate with a small closed network in our shop through underground fiber optic when finished.

• It also houses most of the circuit protection for the nacelle

Gearbox pump, oil cooling, and gen cooling motor replacements: needed to reduce the motor voltage

Ready for Testing

*Note: the students wired the incorrect voltage to the RTDR. Upon power up it blew an internal fuse in the device that we are working on repairing. Costly mistake, but they learned from it.

Future Plans at NJC Wind TechnologyThe students were able to get each system to operate and have done the base programming completed. There are still a few bugs to work out but overall they did an excellent job with the project.

Next semester the sophomore wind students will use the Nacelle for troubleshooting the combined electrical and mechanical systems. The first year wind students will perform maintenance activities such as laser alignment of gearbox and generator, torqueing (everything), greasing, and cleaning.

An HMI and a network will be added to monitor specific systems at the turbine and at our SCADA computer. This is still in development, but it may be mostly operational in the spring of 2016.

A full size gearbox and generator will allow us to perform medium duty repair activities such as bearing replacements that our advisory committee has expressed an increased need for.

The nacelle will act as an outside classroom for our students so that they can gain critical experience before working at height. We will be able to mimic confined space and off the side rescue situations.

It will take us a couple years to fully automate the Nacelle, but it will be a great project once completed.

Without the backing of our industry partners, administration, and the COETC grant we wouldn’t have been able to make this a reality!