O&M challenges at renewable energy plants

Renewable Energy plays an increasingly important role in the European energy mix. In terms of operation & maintenance, how can independent service providers contribute to the maturity and reliability of the sector? Ricardo Moro shares his ideas.

“It is crucial to have a skillful and motivated team, but at the same time the whole operating model has to be improved at several levels.”
-Ricardo Moro

Renewable energy is becoming a very significant part of the European energy mix. How does this fact influence the exploitation of generating assets?

Ricardo Moro. With European objectives of 20 percent of the energy coming from renewables, it becomes a strategic objective to ensure that plants are operated in the best possible way to ensure high electricity yields and minimum downtime or efficiency loss. And of course asset owners demand the same high standards in order to maximise the return on their investment.

How should independent service providers (ISPs) of operations & maintenance services prepare for demands of better service?

RM. ISPs like Global Energy Services (GES) must respond to those demands. Customers request from ISPs to show their commitment by signing service contracts based upon plant availability and energy output objectives, including rewards and penalties derived from achieving them or not.

This commitment must be supported by better service levels provided by the ISP. Which are the types of improvements that an O&M company needs to undertake to really fulfil customer expectations?

RM. Service crews must be familiar with the specific technology to be serviced. Sometimes this is achieved by hiring experienced technicians. In other, rarer cases, there is a cooperation between turbine manufacturer and ISP to provide O&M services. Another step is to increase the qualification of the team so that the technicians, especially the team leader, can organize and execute in an optimal way both the planned maintenance activities and the reaction to any unexpected event. In parallel, talent retention schemes are advisable. For example, rewards can be offered to the service crew when the required plant availability and energy output are achieved.

It is crucial to have a skilful and motivated team, but at the same time the whole operating model has to be improved at several levels. At the execution level, standard operating procedures have to be put in place so that activities are carried out in a homogenous and repetitive way, regardless of skill or habit of the individual technician. Other measures are the use of standard kits, 5S deployment, etc. At the planning level, capacity planning systems must be developed to ensure availability of people/tools/materials where and when required. At the management level, key process indicators need to be identified, measured and monitored in order to trigger corrective actions when necessary.

Has your company engaged in such improvements as those just mentioned? If so, please describe. 

RM. GES, the leading ISP worldwide, is ready to share commitment, risks and rewards with plant owners. For that purpose we are undergoing a transformation project which contemplates actions such as those described above with the goal of increasing uptime and performance in the wind farms that we are servicing. Such a project has been completed in our GES USA organization and we are now extending the results to other regions where we operate.

Along the project we have used many principles coming from the lean operations culture. It has been a very exciting challenge to study concepts originated in manufacturing production environments and adapt them to a service environment. We have found this mental exercise enormously stimulating and creative.

Finally, please summarise the practical results of the transformation project for your company.

RM. GES is now in a better position to provide O&M services to our customers, many of whom are global and demand from us common operational standards anywhere in the world. And this is an ongoing process: further cooperation between asset owners, turbine manufacturers and ISP companies will make renewable energy a more mature and reliable contributor to the energy system.

Biography

Ricardo Moro is Chief Executive Officer at Global Energy Services, the leading independent service provider in the wind sector with almost 11,000 MW maintained worldwide. He is an industrial engineer and has over 20 years' experience in the renewable energy sector, both in manufacturing and in service activities.