Our solution for next-level maintenance:
OnPerformance.Lab
The OnPerformance.Lab helps hydropower operators to reduce maintenance costs and standstill times by remote expert support and health assessments. Our expert team combines domain know-how with state of the art data analytics to enhance maintenance and operation of your plant.
The Lab enables you to:
Know your issues at an early stage
The true value of our services is knowing your hydropower problems as soon as possible. This enables you to plan better, save on maintenance costs and increase availability.
Make smarter decisions
Lab experts provide regular health reports based upon your operational data. Voith offers a secure and broad set of data connectivity solutions. The software used by our experts ensures fast delivery at an attractive price.
Begin the data journey
As connecting your entire power plant to the cloud promises many advantages, there are also many barriers and costs. Voith has discovered and fulfills the need for an easy-to-implement process without investing millions into connectivity.
How it works
An increasing number of devices create data to enable response at an early stage. However, there is more often a lack in in-depth knowledge when it comes to analyzing data. That’s why Voith supports customers with a team of experts . Learn more about the functional principle behind the OnPerformance.Lab
The web interface OnPerformance.Lab Interact is where all information comes together. To be able to ensure a clean and fast data exchange a few steps are required.
- On-site assessment of all condition monitoring systems incl. sensors by the OnPerformance.Lab team.
- Hydro operator sets analysis priority and uploads data on the platform OnPerformance.Lab Interact.
- OnPerformance.Lab assesses machine health.
- Hydro operator reviews the recommendations.
- Reports and recommendations are continuously updated based on clients needs.
Our OnPerformance.Lab experts Dr. Alexander Jung and Dr. Matheus Habets discussed the latest developments in hydropower maintenance and how data science delivers in this framework a forward-looking, innovative solution. Register now and view the exclusive recording of the live event.
Register now for on demand viewing!Stories of our clients
Brazil
Our Service
Remote Troubleshooting of excessive relative bearing vibration of the generator
What was the challenge?
The customer recorded high levels of relative vibrations at the upper guide bearing of the generator which several times caused alarm warnings. The vibrations were around border C/D of ISO 7919-5. Without a planned outage the local staff wasn’t able to identify the root cause. Voith was asked to access remotely and perform a troubleshooting.
What did Voith do?
Voith’s service team collected and analyzed data using the remote access to the power plant monitoring system. The dataset was recorded while the unit was running at different modes of operation, from steady state to maximum load. With the data the team made a complete vibration analysis. The high vibration root cause was identified and quantified as a combination of the upper generator shaft misalignment (60%) and the generator rotor unbalance (40%).
What was the value to the customer?
Voith reduced 35% of the shaft vibration through rotor balancing and eliminated the alarm warnings in all operation condition. A possible improvement on the vibration reduction through a shaft alignment can be adequately planed. This measure avoided an outage of a 150 MW unit for at least 3 weeks for unplanned corrections on the shaft alignment. This is estimated to have avoided approximately €226,800 in costs (based on average production loss).
Germany
Our Service
Health check of the hydraulic machine of pump turbine unit
What was the challenge?
In winter, the customer observed high vibrations on his machine and subjectively assigned this to a problem with the guide bearings. As part of a service contract, Voith was asked to collect archived data via remote access and to analyze the observed vibrations.
What did Voith do?
The Voith service team was able to collect and analyze the relevant data via the condition monitoring system. The analysis showed that the measured absolute vibrations on the stems of two guide vanes increased significantly within a few weeks. This indicated that the observed vibrations were caused by a high level of wear of the two guide vane bearings.
What was the value to the customer?
The analysis provides the necessary transparency for foresighted action with regard to the two guide vane bearings. Based on this, they were replaced during two planned machine downtimes aligned with the observed vibration levels. By using the knowledge of our OnPerformance.Lab experts, the issue with the pump turbine unit could be solved faster. This increased the availability and reduced the effort on site.
Romania
Our Service
Remote Troubleshooting of excessive vibrations on the pelton runner
What was the challenge?
The machine suffered some trips (protection system stops the unit automatically) without that the local staff could identify the root cause.
What did Voith do?
Voith's service team collected and analyzed data representing the vibration levels and operative parameters an engineer remotely was able to understand how the nozzles have been applied by the customer during operation. Through a data analysis it was understood that the way the nozzles are operating was inefficient. This was the root cause of the vibration. We helped the customer define a new pattern for operating the nozzles.
What was the value to the customer?
By adjusting the nozzle installation damages to the machines could be avoided and the expected lifetime of the shaft line components increased. This is estimated to have avoided approximately €52,560 (4% availability ) in costs (based on European average production loss.)
With Voith forward
Our experts
The OnPerformance.Lab brings 150 years of Voith engineering experience into your team.
Thomas is Global Product Manager for Voith Hydro's digital services and co-development projects, with a focus on OnPerformance.Lab technology. With a doctorate in economics, he has several years of experience as a product manager, lecturer and strategy consultant with an emphasis on product and innovation management in industrial services. In his position, he has the strategic responsibility for digital services and is in close contact with customers, development and sales.
Alexander is in charge of digital technology developments of Voith Hydro. He holds a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering and applies 25 years of experience in the design of power generation equipment combined with methods and science know-how in technical product development. He started at Voith more than 15 years ago as hydraulic designer for large Francis- and pump turbines.
Paul has an interdisciplinary background in mechanical engineering, mathematics and computer science. Holding a PhD in engineering, he combines his in-depth knowledge of turbomachinery with his experience in physical modeling and machine learning algorithms. As the technical lead of the OnPerformance.Lab, Paul stimulates innovative approaches and guides the development of customer oriented solutions.
Maximilian is a proficient commissioning engineer with more than 5 years of on-site experience. Having been in hydro power plants all around the world, he is an expert in optimizing unit operations and a proven problem solver for hydraulic equipment. Maximilian holds a university degree in mechanical engineering and is now responsible for power plant operations analysis, quantification on the health status and giving technical advise on how to proceed.
Paulo Teixeira is an expert in health assessments and troubleshooting of hydro units. With over 30 years of experience in erection, commissioning and maintenance of large hydropower plants he solved problems for hydro operators all around the world. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering, a Master’s degree in vibration and acoustics and speaks German, English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Thierre Zulzke Penteado has over 12 years of experience in numerical models for structural and fluid-dynamics analysis and experience in vibration measurements and troubleshooting for hydropower plants. He holds a Master’s degree in energy and fluid dynamics and speaks Portuguese, English and Spanish.
José Nieto Diaz is the condition monitoring expert of the Lab. He has over 15 years of experience in vibration diagnosis and is also the product manager of OnCare.Health, Voith’s condition monitoring system. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering and speaks Spanish, English, French, Italian, Galician and German.
Frequently asked questions
How is the data transferred?
You have two options:
- Manually via the platform OnPerformance.Lab Interact. For this you only need to log-in on the website and upload the file you want analyzed via drag & drop.
- Automatically via a remote server. You are in control of the frequency and amount of data you want to transfer to the Lab.
Where is the data stored?
The data is stored on Voith’s local servers at its headquarters in Heidenheim, Germany. We also have alternative solutions if data is not allowed to leave the country due to local law.
In which format should I upload the data?
The most convenient format is .csv as most IT systems are likely to generate such format. If your systems only allow other types of formats, our experts will analyze the exploitability.
What components in a hydropower plant is the Lab team analyzing?
Currently, the Lab is offering services for the electric and hydraulic generating unit, auxiliaries and MIV.
What does a report entail?
A standard report includes the analysis of all generating units, comparing them to older data points, benchmarking them to each other and correlating it to operations data. Our experts then give recommendations for maintenance planning and life time prediction.
How much does it cost?
We have different pricing models depending on your needs. As we apply value-based pricing, you will always receive a worthy offer. Contact us for more information.
How often are reports created?
We recommend one report per month per hydro unit. Quarterly and half year reports are also possible.
We don’t have centralized data storage. Can we still use the service?
Yes. Our experts will help you to explain how data can be extracted and transferred to the OnPerformance.Lab, no matter what IT infrastructure you have in your plants.
Publications
Your contact for the OnPerformance.Lab – how can we help you?
