The following article was written by Inside Climate News reporter Lisa Sorg and was originally published by Inside Climate News on November 10th. It is the third installment in Gaslighting, a series from Inside Climate News about opposition to a wave of new natural gas pipelines, power plants and storage facilities on the drawing board in North Carolina.
Shelley Robbins, the senior decarbonization manager for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, stands next to the Dan River in Rockingham County. Credit: Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News
A man sat in a white unmarked truck, which had backed into a small parking lot near a natural gas pipeline at the Dan River. A similar truck, a similar man, had been there a month before.
Shelley Robbins, the senior decarbonization manager for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, looked past him and ambled down a gravel driveway toward Draper Landing, a public boat launch to the river and a popular tourist destination.
It was October, and the leaves had turned from a deep summer green to shades of russet and saffron. A blue jay squawked to defend its territory. Into the long grass someone had pounded wooden survey stakes, topped with an orange flag and the word “wetlands” printed in black marker. The air reeked of a dead animal. A vortex of vultures circled overhead.
This was the same river that had been inundated with toxic coal ash in February 2014 when, about four miles east of Draper Landing, a coal ash pit at Duke Energy’s Dan River Steam Plant breached. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated at least 39,000 tons of toxic coal ash and 27 million gallons of ash pond water were released into the river. Even after the cleanup, some of that material settled to the bottom, where it remains.
Wetlands have been marked near the Transco, T15 and planned MVP Southgate pipelines in Rockingham County. Credit: Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News
The Transco pipeline runs beneath the Dan River in Rockingham County. Credit: Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News
Now fossil fuels again figured in the river’s future. Robbins had studied the pipeline maps and their arcane legends—metering stations, rights of ways, interconnections. And here it was: Near the river, a cornfield and a copse of trees was the nexus of an immense natural gas buildout planned for North Carolina.
All of the projects—pipelines, compressor stations and liquified natural gas plants—would emit tons of methane, a potent greenhouse gas and driver of climate change, as well as other pollutants into the atmosphere. These projects raise local concerns over permitting loopholes, safety and public health.
A segment of Transco’s 10,000-mile pipeline already runs under the Dan River at Draper Landing; the company plans to add more pipeline in four counties in North Carolina.
The planned Southgate extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline would also be built here, and would feed gas to a third pipeline on the property: the T15 Reliability Project.
The T15 is a complicated undertaking. The existing T15 is a 63-year-old pipeline that runs 37 miles through Rockingham and Caswell counties; it includes a small compressor station near Ruffin.
But because of its age, the T15 needs to be upgraded. A new pipeline would be laid near the existing one, with an additional eight new miles of line coursing through Person County, where Duke Energy plans to build two natural gas plants that would use the fuel to generate electricity.
To accommodate the larger pipeline and higher transmission pressure, a new, larger compressor station would be built, Ruffin II, near the Rockingham-Caswell county line.
Until recently, Public Service Co. of North Carolina, a small subsidiary of Dominion, owned the T15. Now it’s owned by a Canadian energy giant. In October, with approval from the N.C. Utilities Commission, Enbridge announced it had purchased the T15 project as part of a $4 billion deal for all of Public Service Co. of North Carolina’s natural gas business.
The natural gas for these projects would come from fracking operations in Appalachia or gas plants along the Gulf Coast. The gas would then be transmitted to any number of destinations: homes and businesses, Duke’s proposed new plants in Person and Catawba counties, data centers in North Carolina and beyond. Utilities like Duke could even resell the gas to other companies, which in turn could export it.
Even seasoned utilities experts like Robbins are perplexed by the complexity and speed of the buildout. It’s like assembling a jigsaw puzzle without a picture, with a timer about to ring.
Each part of the expansion is fragmented and operates under different rules, depending on whether it crosses state lines. Unlike the proposed Transco and MVP Southgate projects, the T15 runs solely within North Carolina. As a result, it falls outside of several federal environmental and safety oversight requirements.
“It’s disheartening,” Robbins said. “I feel like we’re at an inflection point here where there is so much that we are about to lock in.”
Robbins is 56, with shoulder-length dark blonde hair and bangs, and an affinity for large hoop earrings. She wore slate blue fingernail polish and a letter bead bracelet that spelled out “Harris Walz” and “Smash the Patriarchy”—a gift from her adult daughter, a medical student. Her son is a filmmaker who documents the demise of glaciers.
Robbins lives in Durham but grew up in Thomasville, North Carolina, a small city south of Winston-Salem that lies just east of the Transco pipeline. In college, she didn’t envision forging a career in energy. Her father was a banker; Robbins was an economics major at Duke University. Then she discovered some aspects of macroeconomics—complex systems that interact and influence one another—also applied to ecology and the natural world.
Slowly, the pieces of her calling began to come together, and she’s spent much of the last 20 years fighting fossil fuels.
Sixteen years ago, Robbins was living in South Carolina. A colleague recommended she read the book With Speed and Violence by Fred Pearce. It details the tipping points caused by climate change—melting permafrost, stalling ocean currents—that will propel the planet past the point of no return.
The book permanently changed Robbins’ thinking. Even so, she thought such global upheavals were far in the future. Now, she said, “the 2008 me could not fathom what 2024 me is seeing.”
At Draper Landing, Robbins was getting her bearings as she set out to travel the pipeline’s route. The day trip allowed Robbins to get outdoors, to give her a break from stuffy hotel conference rooms, where she often gives presentations on energy issues.
She strode back toward the car. From afar, she stopped to look at the large Transco metering station, a system of valves and pipes that regulates pipeline pressure. Most people driving by had no idea what they were seeing, she thought.
Transco operates a natural gas metering station near the Dan River in Rockingham County. The company’s pipeline runs 10,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to New York, and cuts through North Carolina, including beneath the Dan River. Credit: Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News
Robbins took in the picturesque field and forest by the river, but to her eye, the massive pipeline infrastructure, the poles and warning signs were hard to ignore.
She checked that she was standing on the public right-of-way.
She took a picture.
Then she headed off down Fieldcrest Road, past the man in the white truck.
July’s Hearing on the Enbridge Sale
Three months earlier, in July, about 20 people gathered in a windowless, beige hearing room at the N.C. Utilities Commission in Raleigh. Half of them came to testify about Dominion’s plan to sell its natural gas subsidiary, Public Service Co. of North Carolina, to Enbridge.
For the deal to go through, the seven-member Utilities Commission—five appointed by the governor and two by the legislature—had to approve it. And if they did, Enbridge would be North America’s largest natural gas utility by volume transmitted. The company, which has an uneven safety record, would add the Moriah Energy Center, a 50-million-gallon liquified natural gas plant in southeastern Person County, the Ruffin compressor station and the T15 to its massive portfolio.
This event was a do-over: Dominion had failed to provide enough advance public notice for a June hearing. No one showed up.
The Utilities Commission ordered a second hearing, but even now, there were snags in the proceedings. The notice, which arrived to Dominion customers by postal mail, contained a word salad of technical terms. One man thought he’d been summoned to court. The downstairs doors to the building were locked, and at least one person had to wait 10 minutes before a security guard passed by to let her in.
Several people testified they were concerned about Enbridge’s safety record.
“We’re concerned about Enbridge’s motives,” testified Juhi Modi, North Carolina field coordinator for the nonprofit Appalachian Voices. “How can we allow a company with this safety record to do business in North Carolina? We can’t afford more methane pipelines that will lock us into natural gas for decades.”
Appalachian Voices was working to defeat or delay the T15 pipeline and has advocated for neighbors, including Andrea Childers, who were trying to stop the Moriah Energy Center. Childers lives in Person County, where Dominion is building the huge liquified natural gas plant a half mile from her home. She routinely appeared before government officials about the natural gas buildout. Tonight, she testified again: “I’m pleading with you to do the right thing.”
On its website, the company noted it had only six reportable spills totaling 4,620 gallons of crude oil and liquid fuels last year.
But the company has accumulated 100 environmental violations since the year 2000, according to Good Jobs First, totalling $283 million in federal penalties. The bulk of those fines stem from a 2010 oil spill that saturated 40 miles of the Kalamazoo River watershed in Michigan. Enbridge employees did not detect a 6-foot break in Line 6B, which gushed oil for 17 hours before the company reported it.
Company spokesperson Persida Montanez told Inside Climate News that after the Michigan incident, the company invested $14.5 billion “on maintenance, inspection and leak detection across our cross-continent pipeline network—keeping our pipes healthy and fit for service. … It transformed the way we think about safety, and how we operate at Enbridge.”
The Rev. Keith Sexton, a minister with the United Methodist Church, asked the commissioners to deny the transaction on the basis of climate change. “Natural gas is not clean energy,” Sexton said. “That’s a marketing lie.”
Two months later, the Utilities Commission quietly approved the transaction. Enbridge now owns all of Dominion’s natural gas infrastructure in North Carolina.
The Ruffin Compressor Station
As Shelley Robbins traveled east along the pipeline route, she noted the presence of several solar farms along the way. One was equipped with panels that automatically tilted to follow the sun. She envisions a future where solar energy and battery storage replace the polluting smokestacks, pipelines and compressor stations. A future when utilities can manage energy demand, paying customers more money to reduce their usage at peak times.
“When you fight something, you need to have an alternative,” Robbins said. “You can’t just say, ‘No, don’t do that.’ You need to be able to say, ‘What are we going to do instead?’”
About 15 miles east of Draper Landing, she passed the abandoned Ruffin school, a hulking brick building with boarded-up windows and holes in the roof. She marveled at a corner lot where a large brown cow and a black-and-white goat were grazing. Then she arrived at the Ruffin compressor station. Compressor stations increase the pressure of gas to send it down a pipeline; they usually have to be built every 75 miles or so to keep the gas moving.
The Ruffin station is a white square building about the size of a small church about 150 feet off the road and surrounded by a metal security fence. Valves and pipes jut from the ground. It connects to the existing T15, but because the new pipeline would be larger—42 inches in diameter, about the size of a large patio table—the existing Ruffin facility would be torn down and a new compressor station must be built about two miles away.
The Ruffin compressor station near the Rockingham-Caswell county line pushes natural gas through the T15 pipeline. When the T15 is expanded, the company will build a new and larger Ruffin compressor station that is projected to emit significantly more air pollution. Credit: Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News
Ruffin II will be larger, with greater horsepower, its four turbines fueled by natural gas. It will emit significantly more pollution than the original compressor station, according to its state air permit, approved last month: 81 times more carbon monoxide, 636 times the levels of volatile organic compounds, 265 times greater emissions of particulate matter, and 131 times more nitrogen oxide, an indirect greenhouse gas that produces ozone.
High levels of ozone can damage the respiratory system and cause or worsen asthma as well as other lung disorders, according to federal health officials. It would also emit smaller amounts of benzene and formaldehyde, classified by the EPA as known carcinogens.
Add another 307,670 tons of greenhouse gases, and, if not for additional emissions controls, Ruffin II would be classified as a major pollution source, subject to stricter federal and state regulations.
Robbins thought the Ruffin station looked small and quiet, seemingly harmless, tucked in a pocket out of the way. But she knew what was coming and that it would be disruptive, ugly and dangerous.
She stood on Ruffin Road and took a picture.
Robbins had been tracking T15 developments from her home office back in Durham. There, bookshelves are arranged with photos of her children, a rock collection and a vintage camera. On the wall hangs a watercolor of Robbins and her daughter, painted by Robbins’ mother.
A standing desk is outfitted with two computer screens, where she analyzes spreadsheets and arcane utilities commission and environmental documents, then writes blog posts for her organization.
As part of her research she found state and federal documents that showed two existing T15 segments in Rockingham County, just north of the Ruffin compressor station, had become exposed at the surface.
Before the sale to Enbridge, Dominion had been publicly underscoring the safety of its proposed pipeline project. Meanwhile, an engineering firm hired by the energy company wrote to state and federal regulators that by June one of the exposed segments “has become much more severe.”
The work required water quality permits, state and federal documents show. Had those pipeline segments been outside a waterway, it’s possible the public would have never known there was a problem, which an Enbridge spokesperson now says has been repaired.
Robbins had seen issues with Dominion pipelines before. In the early 2000s, when she worked in South Carolina, a segment had also popped out of a creekbed. The pipeline had been like that since it was installed in the 1960s, Robbins said.
Robbins wondered how long the T15 had been exposed. Like so many questions about natural gas companies, she doubted she’d ever get an answer.
At the End, the T15’s Eight-Mile Dogleg
The final leg of Robbins’ winding excursion along the proposed route of the T15 took her through Caswell County, where the pipeline would run through rolling hills and pine-studded hunting and fishing lands owned by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. On Murray Road, a dead end, the T15 would graze the Dan River Work Farm, a minimum-security state prison.
If there were an emergency, the only way out is through the woods and across the North Fork of Rattlesnake Creek.
The prison has an emergency evacuation plan, but it is not public.
Eventually, the T15 arrives in Person County, where for eight miles, an all-new segment of pipeline would dogleg north to send natural gas to Duke Energy’s proposed new plants at Hyco Lake.
Duke Energy operates two coal-fired power plants at Hyco Lake in northern Person County. The utility plans to retire the plants and replace them with two that burn natural gas, a source of a potent greenhouse gas, methane. Credit: Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News
Here, Robbins saw the gentle ridges and glens of Semora Road that sway like a hammock. About five miles from the lake, the tree line breaks and two smokestacks pierce the horizon. They look like white pencils with black erasers topped by a blinking white light to warn low-flying planes.
These are Duke Energy’s coal-fired Roxboro plants, perched on the shore. With the state Utilities Commission’s blessing, Duke plans to replace them with two new natural gas-powered plants on adjoining land it owns. The T15 will deliver the gas to Duke, sourced from MVP Southgate or possibly Transco. And here, Duke can burn it or resell it to other utilities and energy companies.
The T15 would run directly in front of Woodland Elementary School, a one-story brick building built in 1950. The Duke power plants are about a quarter mile away.
Robbins was shocked. She had seen the plants and Woodland Elementary on Google Earth maps, but to stand at the edge of the school’s driveway, to see the smokestacks looming right there, she felt stunned, then furious.
She envisioned the kids who spend eight hours a day, nine months a year, for six years of their lives here. The proposed gas plants will be even closer to the school, she thought, spewing emissions at them.
She thought of the regulators, ensconced in offices and meeting rooms far away.
Our system of environmental protection has failed these children. Regulators will defer to the emissions rules and pretend these children aren’t here.
She wanted to ask every regulator and decision-maker at every step of the process: Would you send your child here?
Those are the airborne hazards. Below ground, the diameter of the pipeline and its maximum allowable operating pressure determine what the industry calls the “potential impact radius.”
Within these areas, there are different classifications of risk: Prisons, like the Dan River Work Farm, and schools, like Woodland Elementary, are especially vulnerable because they’re difficult to quickly evacuate.
The T15 pipeline would run in front of Woodland Elementary School in northern Person County. The school is a quarter mile from Duke Energy’s coal-fired power plants, which will be replaced with two that burn natural gas. The 222 students will still be exposed to more than 1,000 tons of air pollution each year. Credit: Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News
Montanez, the Enbridge spokesperson, said the maximum allowable operating pressure is still being determined as the T15 is designed, but will be at transmission strength. That is generally from 200 to 1,500 pounds per square inch, also known as psi. By comparison, a typical car tire is inflated at 28 to 36 psi.
Montanez said the information about the operating pressure isn’t public for security reasons.
However, State Utilities Commission records from 2024 show that segments of a pipeline, then owned by Dominion, had an operating pressure of 628 psi at the time of the inspection. The pipeline served the Durham region.
At that pressure, with a 42-inch diameter pipeline like the one planned for the T15, people could be injured or even killed within 700 feet of the line in case of an explosion, not accounting for wind, topography or walls, according to the Pipeline Safety Trust.
In a worst-case situation, the staff and 222 students in kindergarten through fifth grade would have one primary route to safety: Semora Road, which is two lanes and parallels the pipeline. A secondary route scurries through a maze of cul-de-sacs near Hyco Lake before reaching another main road.
The Person County School District did not respond to questions about evacuation plans for Woodland Elementary.
“The myriad terrible things those pollutants do to the human body, especially over time. That is why this Roxboro plant sitting next to the elementary school is, in my mind, unconscionable.” — Shelley Robbins, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Until the federal Clean Air Act became law in 1970, the students of Woodland Elementary breathed air heavily polluted by emissions from the Roxboro plants. Even now, with stricter regulations, state records show students and staff are still exposed to more than 3,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, more than 2,500 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 570-plus tons of carbon monoxide each year.
Switching from one fossil fuel to another doesn’t solve all of the air pollution problems. The new gas-fired Roxboro plants would still emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Although emission levels of some pollutants would be sharply reduced, according to Duke Energy’s own modeling, they won’t be eliminated. More than 1,100 tons of nitrogen oxide, 51 tons of very fine particulate matter and 258 tons of sulfur dioxide would still come from the plant each year.
And levels of carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds would increase, state records show, by 15 percent and 50 percent, respectively.
“The myriad terrible things those pollutants do to the human body, especially over time,” Robbins said. “That is why this Roxboro plant sitting next to the elementary school is, in my mind, unconscionable.”
Epilogue
Five miles east of Woodland Elementary lies the 1,350-acre Person County mega park, an area designated to attract industry. For nearly a decade, county officials have been courting hundreds of companies to locate there, but found no takers—until this year.
Fewer than a half dozen people in Person County knew the identity of the buyer. All of them were silenced by non-disclosure agreements with the company, public meeting minutes show. There were no job numbers, no tax revenue estimates. Just a map showing the location of the mega park in relation to Duke Energy’s planned new natural gas plants, a high-voltage transmission line and a “proposed natural gas line”—the T15.
Many residents felt uneasy about the secrecy. “We don’t know what it is,” said Andrea Childers, who lives in Person County. “Nothing good is going to come of this.”
In late October, the county and Microsoft announced the company had purchased the mega park, although neither would disclose what will be built there.
Microsoft had already reported it would invest more than $1 billion in four data centers in Catawba County, near Duke Energy’s other two proposed natural gas plants.
Since there would be so much energy available to the mega park, Robbins suspected Microsoft could construct a new data center there. These are large server farms where computers hum 24 hours a day, consuming voracious quantities of planet-warming energy.
She had hoped Microsoft would choose to power its operations with solar power and battery storage. But given the supply of natural gas, that seemed unlikely.
Then, in early November, Robbins received troubling news: The N.C. Utilities Commission approved Duke Energy’s much-anticipated carbon plan, which directs the utility to bring more than 3,600 megawatts of new natural gas online within the next seven years. That includes enormous amounts coming in on the T15, Transco and MVP Southgate lines.
The plan also delays the date Duke is required to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by five years: 2035 instead of the original 2030.
The Utilities Commission made its ruling just six weeks after Tropical Storm Helene destroyed towns and livelihoods in western North Carolina. The storm, revved up by climate change, killed 101 people.
Heavy rains from Hurricane Helene caused record flooding and damage on Sept. 28 in Asheville, N.C. Credit: Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images
Robbins had read the decision. Although it ran 183 pages, it mentioned climate change just eight times, seven of them quoting public commenters. She thought the ruling showed a lack of concern for the effect climate change was having on the state, in real time.
Several days later, after the polls had closed on a warm Election Day, environmental advocates like Robbins struggled to comprehend the fallout from Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in the nation’s nasty, deeply partisan presidential race.
Trump has promised to expedite the approval of natural gas pipelines, roll back air emissions rules and withdraw from the Paris Agreement, all of it now endangering the progress the U.S. has made in combating climate change. In an earnings call two days after the election, Duke Energy’s chief financial officer said the utility could revert to burning more coal as a result of the Trump administration’s proposed energy policies.
Robbins felt crestfallen. The Biden administration had allocated billions of dollars in clean energy investments. Now the Trump administration could counter those advances by incentivizing fossil fuels.
Robbins needed to get away. She headed to the coast for a few days where she could stare at the sea. She took her computer with her. There was more work to do.
The post A Pipeline Runs Through It appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Asking the congress to “address the climate crisis” is something of a joke. Most of them have their seats by virtue to their allegiance to Big Oil, and, for many, their position on climate change is that it’s a hoax.
Weather Guard Lightning Tech
IWTG Consulting on Pitch Bearing Cracks, Loose Root Inserts
Jon Zalar, founder of IWTG Consulting, joins to discuss broken blade bolts, cracked pitch bearings, loose root inserts, and early detection.
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Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind energy’s brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow
Allen Hall: Jon, welcome back to the program.
Jon Zalar: Thanks for having me.
Allen Hall: Uh, last time I saw you, we were in Melbourne- Yep … at WOMA 2026, and that was a huge event. We know we’re gonna do it again next year in March three, the 3rd through the 5th, so you’re invited back, of course- I can’t wait … if you can make it. Yeah. Yeah.
It’s gonna be, it’s gonna be a good time. A lot is happening in the blade world and in the wind turbine world more broadly. A lot of things we’re hearing right now are related to blade bolt connection, pitch bearing inserts still. A lot of that still happening in the United States. What is the current status of, uh, the blade connection issues in the US?
I,
Jon Zalar: I feel like it’s a growing [00:01:00] issue, not super, super fast, but it seems to be getting a little worse. There’s, you know, more bolts breaking at that joint. Um, pitch bearing cracks are, seem to be pretty common. There’s different solutions for it, and then, you know, the root inserts are another thing that we’ve talked about before that seem to be happening more and more, or maybe more and more people are finding them ’cause they’re looking.
Allen Hall: What are the first indications that you have a blade bolt or some sort of joint issue at the root of a blade? What can you see?
Jon Zalar: A bolt laying in the hub bouncing around. Um, you know, from like a– looking at it from, like, the sensors on the turbine, it’s really hard to tell unless it gets really bad. Uh, some of the OEMs have some analytics developed to kinda start to indicate if there is a aero change because there’s missing bolts or root inserts are coming out, and they’re using that as a way to go figure out which ones to go inspect first.
Allen Hall: Really? Yeah. You think [00:02:00] the SCADA data will give you some indication that you have a, basically a little bit of a loose blade?
Jon Zalar: Yeah. I, I, I think because the number of turbines and the number of data points you have, I think there is a pretty good analytic out there right now.
Allen Hall: Wow. All right. I think a lot of our operators have not taken advantage of that.
Is, is that just b- based on the high-speed data, SCADA data, or is it low-speed data you could see that same effect?
Jon Zalar: I believe it’s on the low-speed data as well, but I bet the high-speed data was used to kinda develop it.
Allen Hall: Wow. All right. So that’s a huge help to operators. Yeah. So what are you looking for if you’re looking through SCADA data, what would be the couple of markers there that say, “Hey, maybe we ought to go look up at the– in the hub”?
Jon Zalar: I don’t know exactly what they’re using, but they would basically look for maybe an imbalance or looking for certain components that are being overworked.
Allen Hall: Oh, sure. Okay.
Jon Zalar: Yeah.
Allen Hall: So your pitch actuator may be getting a little bit overworked. It would seem like one of the places- I think that, yeah … that would get loaded, right?
Jon Zalar: Mm-hmm.
Allen Hall: Okay. [00:03:00] And any vibration monitoring going on? Because it, it, uh, in some cases you’re– I’m hearing, like, millimeter gaps-
Jon Zalar: Correct. Yeah …
Allen Hall: between the blade and the pitch bearing.
Jon Zalar: So probably a combination of the ALC sensors, at least on a GE turbine, looking at that. But the PCH box also is looking at the tower vibration, so it could be a combination of all three.
I don’t know the exact- Okay … details, but between all of that, I think there are some analytics that kinda say, “Hey, go take a look.” And then I think there’s some other companies that have- tools that go monitor it.
Allen Hall: Mm-hmm.
Jon Zalar: Dial indicators remotely or even, you know, people going up there with dial indicators to go kind of rotate the rotor and kind of see if there is gapping between the blade and the pitch bearing.
Allen Hall: Is that a safe situation in your– from the gapping? I’ve heard this where they’ve basically took shims and they’re trying to measure this gap or some sort of dial indication. Is that a smart thing to do? Is it even reliable to do it that way? [00:04:00]
Jon Zalar: I, I, I think there’s some reliability there. And like, you know, these are really big parts, right?
So like a little bit of gap, it, it’s probably expected to a point, but growing gaps is where you should be a little more scared.
Allen Hall: So you’re– you would have to go do that quarterly, monthly, weekly? How, how often would you have to do it to see the progression? Because I’ve heard stories of, uh, a couple of weeks from nothing to hub crack to, “Oh, it took a year or more.”
Jon Zalar: I think it depends on the issue. I think for– if you’re looking at that, the bolted joint itself between the root inserts and the, uh, bolts breaking itself, I, I think they’re doing about quarterly. Now, the pitch bearings inspections are also quarterly. They’re al- they’re, they’re leveraging the drone inspections for the blades, and they’re looking at the pitch bearings to see if they’re cracked, right?
Uh, you guys are doing that too.
Allen Hall: Okay.
Jon Zalar: I think Coraly is doing a good job mitigating the risk, feels like.
Allen Hall: Wow. All right. [00:05:00] Yolanda, looking at pitch bearings, you’ve looked at a lot of drone images in your lifetime. Mm-hmm. How much can you see on drone images on pitch bearings? Can you see cracks and, or y- or do you see grease, which is a really indication that something is wrong in the bearing?
Yolanda Padron: You can see grease. You can see the cracks pretty, pretty well. Yeah. The drone images are, are really high quality. Uh, but you did mention that it’s something that you’re seeing a lot more. Is it because there’s a lot more aging fleets, or is it a problem with a lot of the new turbines that are coming online?
Jon Zalar: I, I think it’s an, I think it’s a more of a fatigue problem, so the aging of the fleet. And also, I think more people are looking at it, right? ‘Cause, like, initially the drones that were looking for blade cracks weren’t looking at pitch bearings, but then pitch bearings started cracking, so now they added that to whatever they buy off the drone companies, right?
Go look at my pitch bearings, for example.
Allen Hall: Hmm.
Jon Zalar: So I, I think it’s a problem of the more you look sometimes, the more you find.
Yolanda Padron: Hmm.
Jon Zalar: Yeah.
Allen Hall: So we [00:06:00] have root insert issues, which are being addressed by a couple of different companies- Yes … uh, uh, with somewhat similar solutions. OEM is offering one right now also.
Jon Zalar: I, I think there’s three solutions. There’s two uptower that are basically looking at ways to go fill the void between the root insert itself and the blade root. Um, and I– there’s another company that’s also more of a downtower solution where they’re actually, like, r- drilling out the root inserts and putting new ones in that are gonna last better, longer.
Allen Hall: Okay. So the drilling out is, would be CNC onsite. Correct.
Jon Zalar: Yeah.
Allen Hall: And they’re based over in Europe. But th- the drilling out is a take the blade down, set it on the ground sort of- Yeah. Right … doing really fine machining on the, on the blade itself. So that, that’s a different, completely different insert that’s going into that-
Jon Zalar: Correct
Allen Hall: new hole or- Yep … clean hole, right? So it’s a, just a, uh, totally different kind of product versus trying to inject [00:07:00] some s- sort of epoxy or resin into the, the void.
Jon Zalar: Right. Yeah. Uh, I mean, you would prefer to do it uptower. It’s gonna cost you less money.
Allen Hall: Sure.
Jon Zalar: But you wanna make sure you do it right, so I think, uh, I do foresee it being a combination of both solutions kinda going forward.
Allen Hall: Is it dependent upon, like, how much damage has been already done, or what the fatigue w- uh, an estimate on what the fatigue life is?
Jon Zalar: I think it’s strictly on measurement perspective right now. So how much gapping you have, um, kinda determines what potential solutions you have.
Allen Hall: So the gaps aren’t big, right?
So the, the gaps I hear are one millimeter is k- kind of sort of start a problem.
Jon Zalar: Mm-hmm.
Allen Hall: Three millimeters is, “I need to be making decisions.”
Jon Zalar: Yeah. So- That, that’s what I’ve heard, too. Yes.
Allen Hall: Three millimeters is about a eighth of an inch.
Jon Zalar: Mm-hmm.
Allen Hall: So it’s not a lot of m-
Jon Zalar: But you can see sunlight through it if you’re s- down there.
Allen Hall: Okay. That’s not… Well, you should see. That’s not
Jon Zalar: good either. Yeah.
Allen Hall: Right. Okay. So in a, in a three millimeter situation then, you’re doing what? [00:08:00]
Jon Zalar: You’re trying to decide if the uptower solutions are something you wanna go try, ’cause they’re still in the trial mode from my understanding or-
Allen Hall: Okay …
Jon Zalar: people are learning a lot.
So I think when you get to that point, you’re calling some of those companies to say, “Hey, I have this issue. I got a couple blades with, you know, .3. Can you guy- you guys wanna come take a look at it, see if your solutions, if you guys wanna go use it or not?” And then I think the ones that get too bad, from my understanding right now, is they’re, they’re replacing the blades.
Allen Hall: So they’re taking the whole blade down.
Jon Zalar: Yes.
Allen Hall: And what’s the thought process in that? Uh, versus drilling out the inserts and putting new inserts in. Is there just a composite degradation that’s happened around those joints that it just puts it at risk or, or you have actually aged the blade much faster than you would otherwise have done?
Jon Zalar: I, I think they aged that particular connection too much. So I, I- Wow … either between the [00:09:00] fatigue or lack of epoxy resin, w- whatever the actual root cause is for that root insert coming out, when it gets that bad, it’s like you’re not gonna be able to inject enough To make it adhere
Allen Hall: You can’t de-age it.
Jon Zalar: Correct.
Allen Hall: Right?
Jon Zalar: Yeah.
Allen Hall: Bring back the youthfulness of the blade. Wow. All right. And we have seen this worldwide. I know in the, in the States you hear about it all the time, but it, this seems to be not a US- Correct … problem.
Jon Zalar: It’s a worldwide problem, yes.
Allen Hall: Okay. So if, if it’s a worldwide problem, are there more solutions on the way?
I know you talked about three of them already.
Jon Zalar: I have not heard of any other ones except those three as of today.
Allen Hall: Wow.
Jon Zalar: There could be other people working on it. I think there should be.
Allen Hall: So, yeah. You would think so, yeah. So we’ll, I guess we’ll eventually hear about it on the podcast. Usually people with technology will contact us.
They might call,
Jon Zalar: yeah. They might call you, they might call you tomorrow.
Allen Hall: Sure, they may. So that leads to sort of a subsequent issue, which I think is getting grouped together. So the [00:10:00] hub crack, pitch bearing crack, root insert pullout issue is also discussed with blade bolts being broken.
Jon Zalar: Correct.
Allen Hall: Are they related or are they separate engineering problems?
Jon Zalar: If you look at them individually, you’d probably come up with some separate answers, but if you combine them all together, you kind of start looking at is there too much loading happening in the leading and trailing edge of the blade? ‘Cause the hub cracks, the root inserts, and the blade bolts, from my understanding, are happening at those two highly loaded areas of the, the blade or that whole rotor connection.
So I mean, I do feel the root cause is probably a little higher loads than anticipated.
Allen Hall: I think everybody’s talked about when they’ve done the injection method and the drilling method, all they’re discussing is leading edge, trailing edge.
Jon Zalar: Yes.
Allen Hall: And how– It’s a question of how many- Correct … are you gonna replace.
So th- [00:11:00] that’s, those are the two highly loaded spots on the bolted connection.
Jon Zalar: Correct.
Allen Hall: And that’s where blade bolts are also breaking or, or the bolts breaking elsewhere around the periphery?
Jon Zalar: I don’t have all the data, but what I had seen, it’s very similar areas.
Allen Hall: So if you don’t pull the insert out, you’re then loading the bolt.
Cr- Right It’s one or the other, right? Right. Yeah. So the, the, the load path is the load path, so it’s coming through the insert into the bolt. Bolt’s carrying it into the pitch bearing. Pitch bearing’s carrying it into the hub.
Jon Zalar: Correct.
Allen Hall: Hub carrying it downtower. So eventually, one of those, uh, links in the chain is- The weakest.
Yeah … is, is the le- is the weakest. What is it about blade bolts that is so dangerous? We hear– we walk onsite to an O&M building, there are signs saying, you know, “Pay attention for loose bolts. Look around on the ground for loose bolts.” We’re gonna– and as electrical engineer, like, “Whoa.” Bolts should not be falling out of this tower.
What i- what is that sort of sequence where a [00:12:00] bolt would escape from the nacelle?
Jon Zalar: So let’s just use one bolt. One bolt breaks, falls in the hub, bouncing around, doing some– potentially doing some damage inside the hub. And ’cause these turbines, you don’t need to go out there every day ’cause they do run pretty good, right?
Right. You just do your regular maintenance. And if you don’t really know about that, ’cause, like, it bounces around for a while, then it usually gets, like, lodged behind a, uh, either center box or pitch cabinet or actually in the front sometimes. Kinda don’t know it happened. But, you know, frees itself up, keeps bouncing around, it, it could escape through the hatch covers ’cause, you know, people have to get into the hub anyway.
And I’m sure a lot of people listening here that have sites, like, you know, probably found some bolts laying on the ground, which is a little scary.
Allen Hall: Right. So is, is the busting the hatch opening levers? I know there, there’s a couple different ways to get into that hatch. Yeah. But, uh, is it just completely busting the hatch?
Yeah. So it’s– [00:13:00] okay. So you see a– so if you see a loose hatch panel, you have an issue. You probably gotta be careful about coming up on that turbine?
Jon Zalar: Potentially. A lot, a lot of hatches are, you know, not always maintained well.
Allen Hall: Right. I’ve seen them, I’ve seen loose ones, yeah.
Jon Zalar: Yeah.
Allen Hall: Okay. So that, that would be a sign that– but though if, if you’re approaching a turbine, one look on the ground.
And Yolando, you, you’ve seen a lot of turbines. So are you, are we looking on the ground and seeing what’s around the turbine before we approach the turbine now? Yeah. Just, just a sanity check?
Yolanda Padron: Yeah. Be aware also of what’s happening on site, right? Because if it’s some- if it’s a problem on site, you need to be extra careful when you’re approaching any turbine there.
Uh, is it something that people maybe should start thinking about implementing, like, a sensors earlier on than when they’re seeing the issue actually happen?
Jon Zalar: Yeah. I, I, I think that’s a potential, ’cause it, the quicker you catch it, the less damage you’re gonna do, and it also reduce the risk of [00:14:00] it, um, falling out of the hub And I’ve worked with a couple of my, uh, customers for some, like, potential ways to detect it.
Still kind of trialing it right now. But I, I do think there’s gonna be some benefit from a safety reduction, but also from a strictly a damage. ‘Cause, like, you get a couple bolts bouncing around there, and you bang up some cabinets or some pitch motors, that’s expensive and hard to go fix.
Yolanda Padron: Yeah, we were talking about it earlier too.
Like, it goes down, it can hit a transformer, it can hit, like, a truck or someone.
Jon Zalar: Chance of it hitting someone. Yeah. I mean, I don’t care what hard hat you have on, it’s not gonna do anything.
Yolanda Padron: Yeah.
Allen Hall: So what kind of sensor should you be putting onto the turbine if you don’t have access to the SCADA data or you don’t know what the correct algorithm is to suss out there’s something wrong up there?
But a, a bolt breaking is not gonna be something that a SCADA would even pick up, I don’t think. One bolt out of the whole- Yeah. No.
Jon Zalar: No way. Okay. I mean, there’s a– I think there’s, like, [00:15:00]one company looking at more of a, like, mechanical way to, like, prevent the bolt from coming out. I forgot the name of it.
Allen Hall: Okay.
Jon Zalar: Um, and then what I was looking at was more of a, like, you know, microphone type detection to kind of listen for that.
Allen Hall: It would make a lot of noise.
Jon Zalar: Yeah. It seems like it works. It, um, yeah, still more development needed on my end.
Allen Hall: So- The engineer in me was, is saying, “Why are we not putting strain gauges on bolts?”
I picked on the leading and the trailing. It’s like right dead center there to look at, even if it’s just two strain gauge bolts to see what the loads are.
Jon Zalar: So like there are s- there are bolts that are, or that are made with the strain gauges built in that you can use to go, you know, monitor that. But you also need to understand like what was the design intent.
So unless you’re working with the OEM, you don’t really know what you’re seeing is good or bad. You just say, “Oh-
Allen Hall: You just see a number.
Jon Zalar: Yeah. Right. I mean like, and if you install, I don’t know, four, you’d be like, “All right. Leading and trailing edge are higher [00:16:00] than the other two.” Well, yeah, it’s supposed to be, but like is a 10% difference expected or not expected?
Allen Hall: Is that something where if you’re, especially if you’re in a full service agreement, and a lot of these turbines are- Yeah … for the first couple of years, if you were to do that, it’s something you would just say to the OEM, “Hey, this is, these are the loads we’re seeing from the strain gauges on these bolts.
Does this make sense to you?” Or, or would an OEM just not even respond to that kind of inquiry?
Jon Zalar: I mean, I think it’s all about relationship with the OEM. I, I, I think
Allen Hall: it- I think they would wanna know.
Jon Zalar: I have a feeling they probably are looking.
Allen Hall: Okay.
Jon Zalar: I mean, ’cause I mean they have the test turbines too that they probab- that, that I know they have instrumented heavily.
Allen Hall: Yeah. So they, they’re probably getting at least some feedback. Th- that’s the problem. Yeah. And you worked on the other side, right? I have. So you worked for an OEM doing the RTAs. The first problem is you don’t have data, so now you gotta go get the data.
Jon Zalar: Correct.
Allen Hall: And that data is not available tomorrow. No.
‘Cause you’re gonna have to go run some sort of design of experiment to go figure out if [00:17:00] there is even a true problem or even what the root causes could be.
Jon Zalar: And it, and it’s expensive to go instrument a blade and get the data back at the right speed and connected to the turbine data. I mean, I rem- I, I used to say it’s about like 300 to 500,000 to go put a couple gauges on a blade just with all the equipment you need to get the data correct.
Allen Hall: To get the right data.
Jon Zalar: Get the right data at the right frequency connected to the controller. It’s, it’s very expensive.
Allen Hall: Wow. Okay. Yeah. I, I don’t, I don’t see a lot of operators doing that.
Jon Zalar: And especially connecting it to the operating data, right? So like if you go put a strain gauge and I don’t know, you’re curtailed, you’re only making, I don’t know, a megawatt- Doesn’t matter.
And if you don’t know what the turbine’s doing and you’re looking at this, like, strain gauge data, it’s really hard to correlate anything.
Allen Hall: So you need a full suite of data. Yeah. That includes weather data- Yeah … at some level, right? Gust winds and- Oh,
Jon Zalar: yeah …
Allen Hall: average wind speed. You need the anemometer. You need which, which way [00:18:00] the n- cell’s pointing.
Y- uh, you would need a lot of information- And what the controller’s- … to even suss it out …
Jon Zalar: and what the controller’s doing, right? Right. ‘Cause, like, every turbine, the controller’s trying to, like, you know, balance the rotor the whole time. It’s trying to, you know, micro pitch depending on what the winds are doing.
And if you don’t know what all that stuff’s doing, like, it’s really hard to correlate a strain gauge measurement to is that bad or not.
Allen Hall: It’s a complicated problem.
Jon Zalar: Yes. That’s why RCAs take, you know, a long time, and they’re not done in two weeks.
Allen Hall: No, they’re done in a year.
Jon Zalar: Yeah.
Allen Hall: Typically, or longer. So what should an operator be thinking about now?
If, if we s- get our drone images back, we’re scanning through them like, “Oh, there’s a crack” What am I doing next besides calling you and connecting to your LinkedIn page?
Jon Zalar: So right now with the pitch bearing crack, um, some of the OEMs are providing stiffener plates to put over the crack and try to run it.
Allen Hall: So that’s a doubler plate, basically. A double plate. Doubler
Jon Zalar: plate, yes. [00:19:00]
Allen Hall: Yeah. Okay. So even in a, in a crack scenario, that pitch bearing, if given mechanical support, can run like that?
Jon Zalar: That’s my understanding, yes. That, that potentially could run for some period of time. I don’t know if it’ll make it 20 years or not, but it’ll buy you time for sure.
Allen Hall: Does that involve a crane to do that work or is that just… My recollection, that was in pieces, like there, it’s not a ring, it’s a, a couple of pieces that you’d be able to bolt on without taking the-
Jon Zalar: No, it’s a- … blade down … it’s a, it’s a single piece that-
Allen Hall: It’s like a single casting kind of thing.
Jon Zalar: Right. And I, I think you need some like small crane, like a jig crane or one of those-
Allen Hall: Just to support the blade while you do it?
Jon Zalar: And to go put it in, right. Okay. Yeah, I don’t think, you’re not taking the blade off. You’re not taking the
Allen Hall: blade down.
Jon Zalar: Correct. Yeah. It’s, it’s done with the blade up there.
Allen Hall: Okay.
Jon Zalar: You’re putting new, putting longer studs in and putting the plate on.
Allen Hall: So first step is let’s get the joint reinforced. Right.
That’s the easy first step.
Jon Zalar: Right. Although there has been some cases where since [00:20:00]you’ve put that stiffener plate on, the loads get spread out to the end of the plate, and then you- Sure … you could see cracks there.
Allen Hall: Okay. All right. So the loads- It, that- … have to go somewhere …
Jon Zalar: loads have to go somewhere. That’s, that is a bottom line.
Allen Hall: All right. So you’re just changing where the load path is, so you have to be cognizant of that. Okay. Sure. Fine. But if you have, uh, especially in the United States, you don’t have 10 of these turbines, you have 50, 100- 100 … 200, 300 of these things, or thousands as it, as it turns out. Are there simple solutions that can be applied to, just to give me a sense, like that turbine’s having a problem, but the one next to it’s not, and, and just, just from a maintenance spin standpoint where I’m not just blanketing everything and trying to do everything to all these turbines at once, how do I, how do I manage this?
Jon Zalar: I, I think it’s like being very observant. So like, you know, making sure you’re looking at the pitch bearings from the drone images, right? Um, also talking [00:21:00] to your maintenance people like, “Hey, are, are you finding a bunch of broken bolts? Like, what positions?” Like, you know, if I was back at the OEM, I would like to have as much data as possible on this issue.
Like how many bolts are, when did you find them, what positions? A lot of times we, when I was there, like we would not get all that information, so it’s like really hard to run an RCA without that information.
Allen Hall: Sure. Yeah, where did this bolt break in the ring?
Jon Zalar: Right.
Allen Hall: Could tell you a lot. Is it just a b- bad lot of bolts, or is it something more load related?
Jon Zalar: Correct.
Allen Hall: Wow. Okay.
Yolanda Padron: Yeah, I think that’s a really good point, too, to make sure that you’re connected with like every stage of the operations. ‘Cause I know that everybody’s obviously really, really busy on a wind farm, but it’s really common for like an engineer to have certain data and the site team to just be running around and having a lot of data, but maybe they don’t realize that, oh, it’s important to know how many bolts per tower are coming down.
Jon Zalar: Correct. Yeah
Allen Hall: That’s a lot of work
Jon Zalar: It definitely-
Allen Hall: It’s a tremendous effort if you’re gonna [00:22:00] go after this problem and, and solve it RCS
Jon Zalar: are hard. They
Allen Hall: are. Yeah. All of it. Yeah. Machines are complicated today. There’s a lot of computer-driven s- things about them, and then you have these loading issues, and you have composite materials.
Th- there’s just, y-
Jon Zalar: you got to get- It’s a very complex
Allen Hall: It’s a machine, right? Yeah. It’s a complex machine. So how do people reach out to… You’re, you’re the head of IWTG, which is based in South Carolina, but you do consulting worldwide. Yes. And, and you are a huge resource because you understand the complexities of these problems.
How do people get ahold of you and, and get something started if they have a, a, a blade bolt issue or an insert issue or a cracked pitch bearing? Where do they start?
Jon Zalar: They can send me an email, jzalar@iwtgconsulting.com.
Allen Hall: Okay. And you have a great LinkedIn page, so you can connect with you on LinkedIn.
Jon Zalar: Yes.
Yeah, I have one
Allen Hall: of those. Yes. Or you could just come to WOMA in [00:23:00]2027. Yeah. You can. You can meet John there and, and arrange everything there. So John, it’s great to see you, and thank you for coming up. We, uh, we’re recording this at the world headquarters of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and, uh, John just lives down the street in, in, in US terms.
Yeah. So it’s, it’s great to have John come and visit us up here in North Carolina. So John, thank you so much for joining us.
Jon Zalar: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Trump’s (fairly successful) attempts to divide America are just a means to the end of staying in power so as to be able to continue to loot the U.S. treasury.
At this point, there are three essential factions in the United States:
- A small number of extremely powerful billionaires
- The MAGA base of white nationalist / hateful morons who believe that only Trump can save us from communism, racial impurity, and godlessness
- Decent, educated people
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