ZOOM air gap monitoring at Thompson Falls GS

The 50 MW Unit 7 at Montana Power´s Thompson Falls generating station was commissioned in December of 1995. A ZOOM machine condition monitoring system manufactured by VibroSystM inc. of Montreal, Canada was installed on this machine prior to commissioning to measure a variety of vital dynamic parameters. Measured parameters include 8 air gap capacitive stator-mounted sensors (4 located at the stator splits and 4 equally spaced between the splits), X and Y vibration proximity probes at the upper and lower guide bearings, a Z axial direction vibration proximity probe at the thrust bearing, gate opening, 23 temperature inputs including bearing water, bearing oil, bearing metal, stator RTD´s, turbine seals, MW, MVAr, head water, tail water, generator current, stator voltage, exciter field current and voltage