Big Data From Talking Turbines Signal Productivity Boom

At the Top Crop farm in Dwight, Illinois, 200 turbines rise from a sea of corn and soybeans, their blades gently turning day and night to spin up wind energy. They talk to one another, unheard by the human ear, seeking to keep pace with their neighbors’ output.

If one falls behind, sensors reach out to an office about 850 miles away in Schenectady, New York, where General Electric Co.’s remote operations center, using data from 19,000 windmills, finds the most efficient way to help. Intelligent monitoring of the machines has helped GE fix faults, limit snags and pre-empt thousands of failures.