Background

A fire at the base of a turbine with significant equipment failure and subsequent shut down of the wind turbine led to Thomson Bridge being retained to perform a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to ascertain the elements that contributed to the incident and investigate its impact on the entire turbine fleet which were constructed with the same specification.

Our role

Following a significant equipment failure and subsequent shut down of the wind turbine, Thomson Bridge’s electrical engineering expertise was retained to investigate the cause of the failure.

We worked in collaboration with their site based staff in Australia, their international technical experts and the Workplace Safety Authorities.

Our investigation involved assessment of historical records and a detailed analysis of operational events leading up to the incident to ascertain possible causes.

We undertook a site investigation of the plant then prepared a report to identify probable cause of failure based on evidence gathered during the site visit and comparative results with adjacent turbines.

We included a review of site operating practices at the time of failure to assess potential opportunities for improvement in future operating protocols.

Project Details

• Client: Wind Sector Participant
• Location: Australia
• Industry: Renewable generation
• Our role: Incident investigation undertaken by our electrical engineers to determine probable cause of wind turbine electrical plant failure.
• Outcome: Provided clarity on identification of the causes of the plant failure to assist in future maintenance protocols across an international fleet of turbines.