SmartSignal and Invenergy worked closely together in 2009 to enhance the SmartSignal solution to address the needs of wind energy operators fleetwide. The rollout comes after a successful collaboration between Invenergy and SmartSignal’s research and development group, along with a SmartSignal Solution Test Drive that ran from early July through September at Invenergy’s Forward site in Wisconsin. SmartSignal’s solution will be deployed on top of Invenergy’s existing OSIsoft PI System™ implementation.
This is the first of many important customer relationships that SmartSignal is developing with the wind industry in the Chicago area, a headquarters of green technology. SmartSignal CEO Jim Gagnard commented: “Efficient wind farm management presents distinct challenges, given changes in ambient conditions and loads characteristic of wind. With the help of industry leader Invenergy, SmartSignal is now extending its expertise from traditional power to wind in order to provide the same level of support and diagnostic intelligence. We’ve been thrilled to work with Invenergy to develop our offering, and we see this as the first of many opportunities to help improve the fleetwide efficiency of wind operators in Chicago and around the world.”
Invenergy CEO Michael Polsky added: “The rollout of SmartSignal is key to Invenergy’s building of the most reliable wind power fleet in the world. The work our firms will do together will permeate the wind power industry and help establish Chicago as the leadership center for green power.”
SmartSignal’s EPI Center software detects, diagnoses, and prioritizes developing mechanical and instrumentation turbine failures for SmartSignal’s wind customers. SmartSignal develops personalized empirical models for all turbines, each of which is composed of a sophisticated combination of interrelationships of all related sensors that affect turbine performance. These unique turbine models automatically adapt to fluctuations in wind speed, direction, shear, turbulence from ambient conditions, and equipment performance. SmartSignal analyzes in real time all the data collected in the nacelle—literally tens of thousands of data points every ten minutes across a fleet—and detects and notifies wind farms of impending problems, allowing owners to focus on fixing problems early and efficiently.
Invenergy and its affiliated companies develop, own and operate large-scale renewable (wind power) and other clean energy generation facilities in North America and Europe. Invenergy is committed to wind energy and clean power alternatives and continued innovation in electricity generation. Invenergy’s home office is located in Chicago, and it has regional development offices throughout the United States and in Canada, Poland and Scotland.
Invenergy and its affiliated companies have developed and placed in service nineteen wind farms and five natural gas-fueled generating facilities. The aggregate capacity of these facilities is approximately 5,000 megawatts. Invenergy is one of the top five largest owners of wind generating facilities in the United States, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
SmartSignal provides early warning of equipment failure so its customers avoid surprises. Its patented predictive diagnostics reduce risk left by current condition monitoring. SmartSignal optimizes its customers’ resources and readily integrates into their enterprises so they can further innovate. After monitoring more than 12,000 rotating and non-rotating assets, identifying over 10,000 developing equipment failures and thousands of operational errors, and protecting equipment for dozens of leaders across multiple industries for over 10 years, SmartSignal has proven itself to be the worldwide leader and innovator in predictive diagnostics for equipment health. A Microsoft Gold Partner, SmartSignal and its customers have won over 20 awards for excellence, including an international Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award.
