Case Study: Large Power Utility Company prevents unplanned downtime with Petasense continuous condition monitoring

Continuous Condition Monitoring Pays Off At A Large Power Utility

Large Power Utility Company, a large power utility in Hawaii operating several combined-cycle natural gas plants, needed more frequent condition monitoring on its balance of plant assets after experiencing significant equipment failures between quarterly walkaround inspections. It turned to Petasense and its wireless condition monitoring solution for improved visibility on critical assets like boiler feed pumps, condensate pumps, and forced draft fans.

Petasense installed triaxial battery-powered vibration sensors (Motes) and WiFi connectivity on 8–10 assets, with data tracked in the ARO Cloud software and mobile app. The solution quickly detected worsening health and rising vibration on a boiler feed pump motor, leading to a finding of bearing and coupling damage before an unplanned failure occurred; the plant adjusted operations, increased monitoring to hourly, and completed a planned repair during outage, helping Petasense deliver early failure detection, avoid downtime, and generate a fast ROI.