Hydro Condition Monitoring: Drive-End Bearing Overgrease Detection
Overgrease detected at startup; temperature normalised without downtime. Konductor's condition monitoring distinguished between bearing failure symptoms and benign overgreasing, avoiding unnecessary shutdowns.
Key Results
Challenge: After routine maintenance, the Pelton turbine's drive-end bearing showed a temperature spike immediately after startup. Without continuous condition monitoring and a clear baseline, teams can mistake overgreasing symptoms for bearing failure, risking unnecessary shutdowns, emergency callouts, or premature component replacement. Monthly reporting is too slow to separate benign overgrease events from emerging faults.
Solution: The Konductor platform ingested live bearing temperature and vibration from the HMI/PLC. We compared signals against the site's baseline and post-maintenance expected profile. Konductor flagged an abnormal temperature rise without corresponding vibration growth, a classic signature of overgreasing/grease churning rather than mechanical damage.
Results: The event was identified immediately after startup. Guided by Konductor, the team confirmed overgreasing against the OEM greasing instructions, adopted a controlled operating window, and monitored the temperature decay back to baseline while vibration stayed steady. No bearing damage occurred, no emergency outage was required, and the incident closed with a documented preventive action for future services.
Case Snapshot
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Sector | Hydro |
| Location | Scottish Highlands |
| Assets | Pelton turbine drive-end bearing |
| Period | Startup event + normalisation period |
| Users | Asset owner, O&M provider, onsite caretaker |
| Integrations | MQTT HMI/PLC telemetry (bearing temperature & vibration) |
Implementation
- Mapped HMI/PLC tags for bearing temperature (DE/NDE) and vibration (overall & banded)
- Established baseline trends from pre-maintenance data; set post-startup tolerance bands and rate-of-change alerts
- Enabled a focused dashboard showing temperature decay and vibration stability during purge
- Captured a post-incident note in Konductor’s logbook to prevent repeat over-lubrication
Key Indicators Tracked
- Temperature spike after startup followed by steady downward trend (purge effect)
- No rise in overall vibration or fault-frequency bands (no mechanical deterioration signature)
- Alarm cleared once temperature returned to baseline tolerance; dashboard archived as a training example
Why Konductor?
- Signal + context: trend alerts and Logbook entries tie symptoms to likely causes (e.g., overgrease vs. bearing defect)
- Fast, low-touch rollout: leverage existing HMI/PLC signals; add sensors only if needed
- Operational confidence: real-time dashboards, event logs, and preventive guidance that stops small issues becoming big ones
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