Former GE Wind Energy & Clipper Windpower Exec Joins LogiLube as Strategic Advisor
LogiLube, LLC, an industry leader in Big Data predictive analytic solutions for the wind energy and oil & gas industries, is proud to announce it has added former GE Wind Energy and Clipper Windpower executive Lawrence (Larry) Willey to its Strategic Advisory Board.
“We are excited to add such an accomplished and experienced wind energy professional to our Advisory Board,” comments LogiLube CEO and founder Bill Gillette. Willey will work closely with the LogiLube team to strategically guide the company as it introduces it’s new SmartGear™ and SmartParticle™ IoTCM (Internet of Things Condition Monitoring) technology to the global wind energy market.
In his new role with LogiLube, Lawrence will leverage his 20+ year wind industry experience to provide strategic guidance for the development, testing and commercial launch of the company’s suite of intelligent wind turbine gearbox technology.
In making the announcement, Bill Gillette said, “Lawrence is a true heavyweight in the global wind energy industry. His years with GE Wind Energy, and then with Clipper Windpower, have earned him a prestigious position within the wind energy alumni group.”
Since March 2017, Willey has served as a Professor of Professional Practice - Mechanical Engineering for the University of Wyoming, College of Engineering and Applied Science. He is also a Senior Advisor to the University of Wyoming, Wind Energy Research Center.
Prior to his current post, Lawrence had a 38-year career in industry including utility-scale and distributed wind power, large steam and gas turbines for electric power generation and aircraft gas turbines. He held executive leadership positions with Northern Power Systems, Energy Northwest, Clipper Windpower, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.
The last few years, Willey said he’s seen a fine tuning within the renewable energy industry including better, smarter controls and the use of Big Data and analytics; LogiLube is taking it several steps further by integrating machine learning, artificial intelligence and edge-processed predictive analytics.
“The most important change for me is diagnosing machinery in real-time,” said Willey. “When I had the roles as vice president of operations for Clipper Windpower and service responsibilities for a fleet of power generation equipment at Energy Northwest, the LogiLube IoT conditioning monitoring technology would have given me the ability to diagnose, in a very short time period, what is exactly happening with my equipment.”
Willey said “LogiLube’s technology is leveraging Big Data while at the same time cleverly insuring that the lube oil undergoing continuous condition monitoring represents the working fluid – and all in real-time”. He said if he had the chance to use the technology in his previous roles, he would have seen the varying levels of small contaminate particle counts indicative of a hidden metal-to-metal wear condition that would inevitably lead to a shortened useful asset life, or worse, a catastrophic failure.
“The magic of LogiLube’s technology allows operators to understand, as the machine is operating, what the conditions are when these tiny particles are being generated,” Willey said. “I could have taken action to either not generate high levels of particles or avoid operating conditions that are producing these wear particles.”
Willey said, “LogiLube’s technology is extremely powerful. I would have given my left arm to have this type of technology to diagnose my wind turbine gearboxes – especially for the most energetic sites,” Willey said. “If I had LogiLube’s technology in 2011, it would have made a huge difference. Instead of guessing and tweaking things to save gearboxes or minimize downtime, I could have done it with science using the LogiLube solutions.”
Lawrence is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering (1984). He also obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hartford (1982). Lawrence is a registered Professional Engineer and holds several U.S. and international patents. To learn more about Lawrence and SmartGear™ visit LogiLube’s website at https://lnkd.in/eUGF2Mu.
“The addition of Lawrence to LogiLube is pivotal to the company’s future growth,” said LogiLube President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Gillette. “The positive impact to wind turbine reliability, uptime and the increase in useful asset life of the gearbox - the Achilles Heel of every gear driven wind turbine - will be welcomed by the various industry stakeholders, from the wind farm owner/operators to the insurance companies that insure fleets of wind turbines world wide,” adds Gillette.
For more information about LogiLube’s Strategic Advisory Board, please visit
https://www.logilube.com/about.
