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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Gearbox FAILURE Investigation



 TMLWP meeting was very well attended on March 12th. This blog will cover only the “Light” portion of the meeting.

Templeton Wind Turbine Cost Certification – We were informed, after months of delay, that the accountant from Braver FINALLY has the documents needed from MMWEC in order to produce a cost certification for the wind turbine. Discussion was had about the benefit of a presentation of the information at a later date.

The TMLWP website is operational. It needs to be linked to the Town website.

Reclosers – two reclosers have been purchased from Thomas & Betts to replace the defunct reclosers. They should arrive in 6-8 weeks. The only operational failure to the distribution system occurred Hurricane Sandy.

The Commissioners voted the $150,000 PILOT payment to the town to be paid in December. Thank you!


2012 Financial Audit – will be conducted by Braver and will include the two actuarial studies on OPEB liability. Braver will work with Goulet Associates to audit the coop-(MMLDWECC)
Information on this Coop should be listed on the new website.

2013 Electric Rate Study – The Light department will conduct a rate study, which has not been performed in a few years. There have been rate changes, but no formal rate study. This process should take about a year to complete and will consider the possibility of certain discounts for seniors and others.



Customer Comments & Questions –

Steve Drury presented information about Chapter 164 s 1 F, which is quite lengthy and outlines the discounts for the poor (impoverished) and the elderly. Mr. Drury asked if the TMLWP were audited by the DPU. One commissioner welcomed the DPU to look through the books. The manager informed the audience that TMLWP does not have an equivalent R4 rate like National Grid for the poor. The early payment discount is the only discount currently in place. Discounts may change based upon the rate study.

Wind Turbine Discussion- The audience was informed that an inspection of the turbine would be performed by JaKe(Jahnel Kestermann, Germany) this Friday to try to pinpoint the cause of the previously reported “clunking” noise. A different boroscope will be used for the inspection.

A question was asked “Why do we have this turbine and not one from GE?”

Response: The turbine projected began in 2003. Originally, the Templeton turbine was included in the bid through MMWEC for the 10 turbines that are part of the Berkshire Wind Coop. At the last minute, GE would not sell TMLWP(or MMLDWECC) a turbine due to the location of our turbine. GE changed the setback requirement to adjacent buildings from 600 feet to 1,300 feet because of concern over “ice throw”. Ice throw is a condition where ice built up on the blades is flung at high velocity when the turbine spins. Our turbine is closer than 1,300 feet to existing structures, including homes.

The audience was assured that ice throw would never happen with our AAER turbine, because the software would shut the turbine down when ice conditions occur.

There was some discussion about flicker and complaints about  our turbine. To date, only one complaint about flicker has been received.  A resident from Fern St. attended the meeting.
This resident described an incident where he woke up one morning and his deck was cover in ice. He could hear it hitting his roof during the night. In his opinion, the only place the ice could have come from was the turbine.

Later in the discussion Dave Smart handed the manager and commissioners the following report:



This investigation/report was written by DARoberts, LLC from Seattle Washington.

Read the footnotes. Start with footnote 1. …five similar AAER 1500-77 wind turbines with identical gearboxes were installed in the United States1
1 Barstow, CA (1, operating at 1000kW peak output due to grid limitations), Tehachapi, CA (2), Templeton, MA (1)

Templeton’s turbine has an identical gearbox as the one in Portsmouth RI(1), Barstow, CA(1), Tehachapi, CA (2).

Pretty confident this report will be summarily dismissed because it was obtained from the Internet. But if our gearbox is one of the 5 identical gearboxes, and if our turbine now has metal pieces in the oil, wouldn’t it be wise to at least review the report?

The discussion ended with a questions about the certification of this gearbox from AAER. Hopefully, documentation about the certification will be forthcoming from the TMLWP. From what I remember, I think AAER provided a certification of the turbine, but not from Germanischer Lloyd.

The turbine does have a 2 million dollar liability coverage or it may the coop (MMLDWECC) which carries the coverage. The warranty has expired.

When asked directly if it is a good idea to fix the turbine? Is it safe? Is it lucrative? The manager stated “Yes, it is”. The turbine is owned by MMWEC. TMLWP purchases the output from Coop. It is a rather convoluted setup.

Concerns –

Cost certification – how much did the entire turbine cost?  No one will know until the cost certification is complete. Can’t determine the payback period or depreciation without that information.

Gearbox failure – there are differences in maintenance  between Portsmouth, RI turbine and our turbine. After reading the Gearbox Failure Investigation, maintenance or lack thereof is not the cause of the gearbox failure. It appears to be a design flaw that was exacerbated by larger blades than recommended. Larger blades = more output…until the gearbox fails.

This situation bears close attention.

My opinions…supported by FACTS ! ! !

Julie Farrell



6 comments:

  1. I was thrilled to watch the BOS meeting from Monday night and see the L&W dept in attendance. It was great to see everyone talking together and discussing issues in a business-like manner. That's all anyone wanted. Its really that simple. I hope this open dialogue continues further and a stronger bond between L&W and the rest of town government forms. Its really pointless to have all this in-fighting. This isn't a game. And once everyone finally tires of the bickering, they'll come to the same conclusion: eventually we're all going to have to learn to work together side-by-side in order to evolve. Let's hope we all can explore how to fix the turbine issues together and bring back a sense of universal pride for being a citizen of Templeton.

    I appreciate reading this info here. It really does help to have so many things posted here instead of trying to hunt all of it down piece by piece. Thank you for sharing. I really feel that the more people know about a problem, the more footwork can be done into reading articles and finding various solutions to bring to the table.

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  2. Thank you Julie,As always your a gift of unlimited information!The fact that Driscoll told the Fern drive resident that he wouldn't want a turbine in his back yard either speaks for itself.If we don't own it who are the payments to not own it going to? How is the REC money recieved by TMLWP as stated 300k in last year!
    When is the whole story to be told about a broken turbine we don't own but make payments on the loans for it. When do the Templeton voters get to weigh the risks and benefits?
    Last night was a real eye opener and has me thinking about the hidden agenda even more now.
    The statement was made that our electric rates depend on getting the turbine running again, but we were told before the cost to not run it was only $1.63 per customer? No specifics of how long and vague. The whole turbine issue from the start seems to be one big short circuit!I would like to thank the people that attended last night and also let you know your not alone and you will be supported!I think another talk with General Manager of princeton light Brian Allen is overdue! "True light From True light"
    Shareholder
    Dave Smart

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  3. It is a page to not miss #20 about changes in parameters to the yaw sensors. When did our major problems start? Before or after the generator bearings failed last year? Was that after the frushes were flipped instead of replaced as should be?
    The issues will be brought out for the public to hear!
    They can be the judges and vote as they see fit,for who needs to represent them and their monopoly/money. We have never and don't offer a low income discounted rate!
    They should have all along. We've asked time amd time again.They are soon to do a rate study!So nice of them to show the people they care.
    Shareholder
    Dave Smart

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  4. Brushes not frushes

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  5. A wind turbine's 'yaw drive" orients the motor housing of a turbine to the wind, and a major componant of that drive is a gearbox.Diagnostic evidence suggests that the german gearbox may be failing due to a bad bearing and ,possibly,because of poor design,the AFCEC reported!
    The cost of keeping the turbine running could be over a million dollars every three years. Add in interest and also lost power production and you can see why we have Templetons most expensive mistake on our hands!But we should waite for the experts to tell us what they want us to hear!
    Shareholder
    Dave Smart

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  6. I got that from the Capenews.net Military base having trouble with German-made wind turbine.

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