Energy and utilities

Wind turbines

Gearbox and bearings warn weeks ahead in vibration and oil debris, long before temperature rises and the turbine stops.

In operation

Request the private demo The five failure modes Download the brief (PDF)

The failures that matter

Five components, in order of impact.

Sibilla has Blueprints in operation for each of these. For every one: how it fails, what announces it, how early you can see it, and what it costs you.

  1. 1

    Gearbox: bearing and gear damage

    Downtime Cost

    Surface fatigue starts in the high-speed and planetary bearings and on gear teeth. Debris spreads the damage through the gear train well before temperature rises.

    Signals
    High-frequency vibration (envelope, gear-mesh orders), oil debris particle count, oil and bearing temperature, active power.
    Typical warning time
    Weeks to months with vibration and oil debris; days if only temperature is watched. (indicative)
    Teneuro
    Yes. Accelerometers and acoustics where there is no CMS or the CMS is old. Oil analysis only with a dedicated sensor.
  2. 2

    Main bearing: wear and spalling

    Downtime Cost

    Heavy, variable rotor loads and poor lubrication wear the rolling surfaces until material flakes off (spalling). The damage grows slowly.

    Signals
    Bearing temperature against load and ambient, low-frequency vibration, axial displacement.
    Typical warning time
    Months, but the vibration signal at low speed is weak. (indicative)
    Teneuro
    Yes. Low-frequency sensors, read with care.
  3. 3

    Generator: bearing wear

    Downtime Cost

    Drive-end and non-drive-end bearings wear from lubrication loss, misalignment and shaft currents that mark the raceways.

    Signals
    Vibration, bearing and winding temperatures, current imbalance, converter alarms.
    Typical warning time
    Weeks for bearings; days for electrical events. (indicative)
    Teneuro
    Yes. Vibration and acoustics. The electrical side comes from the turbine SCADA.
  4. 4

    Pitch system: hydraulic leaks, sensor faults

    Downtime Safety/Env

    Leaks and accumulators losing pre-charge slow the blade response; a faulty angle sensor makes the blades disagree. Pitch is the aerodynamic brake, so these faults also matter for safety.

    Signals
    Pitch angle deviation between blades, accumulator pressure and recharge time, pitch alarm frequency.
    Typical warning time
    Days to weeks. (indicative)
    Teneuro
    No. Usually not needed: 10-minute SCADA data and alarms are enough.
  5. 5

    Converter: cooling failure

    Downtime

    Clogged filters, worn pumps or fans and coolant loss reduce heat removal. The converter derates or trips, and the power modules age faster.

    Signals
    Coolant and power module temperatures against load and ambient, derating events, alarm frequency.
    Typical warning time
    Days to weeks. (indicative)
    Teneuro
    Partly. Pump and fan vibration and noise. Temperatures come from the turbine controller.

Also relevant

Outside the five above: not covered by a Blueprint today, we can work on them as a project.

  • Blades: leading-edge erosion, cracks, unbalance and ice.
  • Yaw system.
  • Converter power modules (IGBTs).

Systems and connectors

What we usually find in the plant, and how we read it.

Read-only, without touching the machines. Three levels, stated plainly: Native, 1-day activation, Project-based.

SystemViaLevelPrerequisite
AVEVA PIPI Web APINative Read access to the customer's PI server.
Vibration CMS with data in AVEVA PIAVEVA PINative —
Bently Nevada System 1OPC or Modbus1-day activation —
Siemens Gamesa SCADAOPC UA1-day activation Customer OPC UA interface active. Over IEC 60870-5-104 the link is project-based.
Nordex SCADAOPC UA Customer Interface1-day activation OPC UA customer interface purchased. With OPC XML-DA or IEC 60870-5-104 the link is project-based.
VestasOnline BusinessOPC UA or ODBC1-day activation OPC UA or ODBC already licensed. Otherwise project-based, as access depends on the OEM service contract.
ENERCON SCADAThird-party interface agreed with the OEMProject-based —

Trademarks belong to their respective owners and indicate technical compatibility only.

Limits

Where predictive maintenance does not pay off.

  • Small, old turbines close to end of life or repowering.
  • Sudden electronic failures with no precursor.

There, good preventive maintenance costs less. We will tell you before we start.

Standards

The references we work with.

IEC 61400-25
Turbine information model and communication; each OEM implements it differently, so tags are mapped site by site.
ISO 16079-2
Condition monitoring and diagnostics of the wind turbine drivetrain.
ISO 20816-21
Vibration evaluation for horizontal-axis wind turbines: nacelle, tower and drivetrain.
ISO 14224
Taxonomy of components and failure modes behind the Sibilla ontology.
RDS-PP (VGB-S-823)
Plant designation system for wind farms, used to map tags to components.

Our solutions on this asset

Sibilla

Blueprints in operation on the five components above: KDIs, expected degradation patterns, links to the fault tree.

Discover Sibilla →

Teneuro

Where the data is not there: vibration and sound, fieldbuses and the signals of silent machines, sent to Sibilla.

Discover Teneuro →

Before Plasmiam, our team designed and ran predictive maintenance for a major international utility: more than 1,000 power plants in 22 countries and over 40 GW of installed capacity, starting from hydro. That experience shaped Teneuro, designed, built and patented by Plasmiam to bring vibration monitoring to large fleets of small plants at a low cost per point.

Tell us what you run. We'll show you how it fails and when you'd notice.

Request the private demo Share it with your team (PDF)

Sources

Last updated 3 October 2026. Warning times are indicative orders of magnitude from literature and practice: they depend on the duty profile and are validated on your fleet.