Diagnosing faults of hydroelectric generating sets (HGS) need the joint efforts of many experts. It is really hard to obtain an accurate interpretation for detected faults relying solely on one independent monitoring system. Therefore, a collaborative monitoring system exploiting independent specialised monitoring systems as the functional unit containing several team members (TMs) has been designed based on facilitator method and team intelligence. Then, the division of labour and responsibilities of each functional unit and communication technology used by TMs in this system are detailed. In addition, this article describes how collaborative monitoring behaviours have been realised through a conversation model based on communication technology. This system provides a good technical support for comprehensive analysis and fault interpretation. A concrete application example is given at the last of this article.