Gamesa, a global technology leader in wind energy, has chosen the EWEA 2012 sector conference scheduled for 16-19 April in Copenhagen, Denmark, as the venue for the European launch of its major turbine components (gearbox, generator and blade) reconditioning services business.
This new service, which the company already provides to Spain's leading utilities and IPP's, extends the useful life of wind turbines and lowers operation and maintenance (O&M) costs by upgrading and replacing internal turbine parts with the most up-to-date technologies, thereby enabling owners to optimise and lengthen the lifespan of their machines. This service enables operators to improve turbine yield and the productivity of their wind farm projects while reducing operation and maintenance (O&M) costs.
Gamesa offers other advantages in the area of reconditioning major components: optimising response times, thanks to the availability of replacement parts in stock for a range of major component models; moreover, its Mega and CMS solutions enable the company to anticipate and schedule needed major corrective work during low-wind periods. Similarly, customers of Gamesa's O&M services can track the diagnostics and status of their machines' reconditioning processes.
Lowering maintenance costs
"In the current economic and industry environment it is crucial to cut maintenance costs, and our dual role as a manufacturer and maintenance provider gives us an edge. Companies like Gamesa, with beginning-to-end involvement in the industry - from the design and validation of components to their manufacture and maintenance - have the ideal know-how and are best placed to incorporate improvements in design and processes when refurbishing major components, including other technologies," said Fernando Valldeperes, Gamesa's Services Customer Area General Management Director.
"Maintenance services are becoming highly sophisticated.Lowering the cost of energy (CoE) entails better designing of the turbines, which in turn requires greater technological complexity and a higher degree of expertise and training among interdisciplinary teams", said Emmanuel García de la Peña, Gamesa's Global Major Components Reconditioning Operations Management Director.
GPA and availability improvements
Gamesa will capitalise on the presence of customers and industry professionals at the EWEA event to showcase other state-of-the-art services in the area of operation and maintenance. These include its GPA (Gamesa Premium Availability) programme, which took two years to develop and features improvements in service design and processes, achieves improvements of 10% in the OPEX of the assets and aims for availability rates of 99%.
16,300 MW under operation and maintenance contracts
Gamesa's full-service approach in the wind industry is rounded off with its operation and maintenance (O&M) services business, a division staffed by a team of more than 2,500 professionals with an international presence servicing 16,300 MW of turbines around the world.
The operation and maintenance services (O&M) business is a cornerstone of Gamesa's future profitable growth thanks to its potential for producing recurring revenues and improved margins and generating cash flow. Moreover, the company's new O&M programmes and services are a deciding factor in achieving optimal Cost of Energy (CoE) performance.
Gamesa is also at work on programmes to maximise energy output, enhance availability and reduce operation and maintenance (O&M) costs in order to lower the cost of energy to 20% by 2013 and to 30% within the next five years.
This business in 2011 ventured into the repair and upgrading of major components and extended its portfolio of services to third-party turbine fleets.